The squeeze

It's past time to trot out my annual table of ESL and window dates (I missed 2018 entirely).  First, my comments on the trends I see in the dates.  [The most important trend ended up buried in the middle, so I put it in bold.]

1. The ESL release date has been sliding.  It should be July 1, but it's sliding towards December.  On the one hand, the ESL isn't changing much, so it doesn't matter much.  On the other hand, the ESL isn't changing much, so why the long review?
2. The "60 days" column is shrinking, almost hitting the minimum in 2019.  That's bad.  The 60-day rule was put in place so that applicants would have time to look at the ESL, decide what they were going to apply for, post a Form 470, wait 28 days, select a vendor and be ready for the opening of the window.
3. The size of the window is shrinking a little.  That wouldn't be a big deal, except that with the "60 days" number dropping, we've gone from having 241 days from the release of the ESL to the close of the window in 2017 to having only 131 days in 2019.  That means applicants have a lot less time to look at needs and budgets, put together a 470, collect bids, sign a contract and file a Form 471.  I still wouldn't say it's a tight squeeze (we only had 71 days in 2010), but it's a squeeze.
4. The window close have moved from May, where it was for a couple of years, to late March.  It's better than the old mid-February close dates, but I'm all for closing the window in May.  Did you notice that the window closed in May for a couple of years, and the sky didn't fall?

Fund Year	FCC releases ESL	Days passed	Window announced	Prep days	Window open	60 days?	Window close	Window days
2005	10/14/2004	22	11/5/2004	39	12/14/2004	61	2/17/2005	65
2006	11/22/2005	1	11/23/2005	13	12/6/2005	14	2/16/2006	72
2007	10/19/2006	25	10/20/2006	1	11/14/2006	26	2/7/2007	85
2008	10/19/2007	9	10/28/2007	10	11/7/2007	19	2/7/2008	92
2009	11/21/2008	3	11/24/2008	8	12/2/2008	11	2/12/2009	72
2010	12/2/2009	1	12/3/2009	0	12/3/2009	1	2/11/2010	70
2011	12/6/2010	4	12/10/2010	32	1/11/2011	36	3/24/2011	72
2012	9/28/2011	55	11/22/2011	48	1/9/2012	103	3/20/2012	71
2013	9/27/2012	47	11/13/2012	29	12/12/2012	76	3/14/2013	92
2014	10/22/2013	29	11/20/2013	50	1/9/2014	79	3/26/2014	76
2015	10/28/2014	52	12/19/2014	26	1/14/2015	78	3/26/2015 (ext. to 4/16/2015)	81 (102)
2016	9/11/2015	136	1/25/2016	9	2/3/2016	145	4/29/2016 (ext. to 5/26/2016)**	86 (113)
2017	9/12/2016	144	2/3/2017	24	2/27/2017	168	5/11/2017	73
2018	10/5/17	70	12/14/17	28	1/11/18	98	3/22/18	70
2019	11/16/18	35	12/21/18	26	1/16/19	61	3/27/19	70

** Extended to 7/21/16 for consortia and libraries
Some explanations:
"Days passed" is the number of days that passed between the release of the ESL and the announcement of the window dates.
"Prep days" is the number of days between the announcement of the window dates and the opening of the window.
"60 days" is the number of days between the release of the ESL and the opening of the window, which should be at least 60 days per the Third Report and Order
"Window days" is the number of days that the window is open.