Partial Government Shutdown Impacts TTB Operations

While this latest federal government shutdown is not expected to last for an extended period, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) has suspended operations for everything except essential services, which has direct implications for our industry. Even though industry members can still electronically submit new Certificate of Label Approval (COLA), formula and permit applications, please note these won’t be reviewed or approved until the TTB resumes full operations.

If you submit applications to TTB in the interim, make sure your COLAs, permits and formulas are complete, accurate and free of errors. Industry members may want to consider withdrawing duplicate or non-essential submissions to ease the inevitable backlog. Regarding COLA applications specifically, members are reminded to review TTB’s list of Allowable Revisions to Approved Labels to see if you can make a change to a previously approved label without needing to submit a new COLA application.

It is expected that Congress will complete work on the funding legislation in the next two to three days and TTB will return to normal operations without significant disruptions. Should this outlook change, we will provide members with updated guidance.