To have health coverage from HealthCare.gov starting on January 1, Americans must sign up by December 15. On December 15, 2016, 670,000 people selected a plan, “the biggest day of any Open Enrollment ever.”
In 2015, as applications surged in the final weeks, the government extended the deadline by two days, to December 17. In 2016, “to meet high demand,” it extended the deadline by two business days, to December 19.
For one grant cycle of the National Institutes of Health in 2014, applications were due on October 6. Of 4,856 applications, 2,068, or 43 percent, came in on that day. NIH later found that applications submitted on the due date were funded at about the same rate as those submitted earlier.
Budgets of federal agencies expire at the end of the fiscal year. The economists Jeffrey Liebman and Neale Mahoney found that federal spending in the last week of the year is 4.9 times higher than the weekly average for the rest of the year.
Information technology projects bought in that last week were two to six times more likely to receive a lower quality rating.
On September 30, 2023, federal funding was due to run out at midnight. Late that Saturday, hours before the deadline, Congress passed a 45-day funding bill, and President Biden signed it. The Senate vote was 88 to 9.
Earlier that year, the Treasury had projected that it could run out of money to pay the government’s bills on June 5. The Senate passed a debt-limit bill on June 1, and the President signed it on June 3.
The 45-day bill did not end the problem. It set a new deadline.
On July 18, 2022, a taxpayer in Alabama filed a petition with the U.S. Tax Court electronically at 11:05 p.m. Central time. In Washington, where the court sits, it was already 12:05 a.m. the next day. In 2023 the Tax Court ruled that the petition was filed late and dismissed the case (Nutt v. Commissioner).
Asking for more time has its own deadline. At the Supreme Court, a request to extend the time for a petition for certiorari must be filed at least 10 days before the petition is due, except in extraordinary circumstances. Rule 13.5 adds that such an application “is not favored.”
Individual income tax returns in the United States are due on April 15. In 2002, 27.1 million taxpayers, more than 20 percent, waited until the last minute to file, according to the IRS. For decades many post offices stayed open until midnight on April 15, so that late filers could still get their returns postmarked by the deadline.
A taxpayer can get an automatic six-month extension. It must be requested by the filing deadline. The IRS adds: “an extension of time to file is not an extension of time to pay.”
Is Friday realistic? What’s a realistic timeline? — The deadline is open to discussion before it is set.
Heads-up: this is going to slip. — A warning that the date will be missed, given before it is missed.
Can I get an extension? — A request for more time.
By end of day. By close of business Friday. — The deadline, stated to the hour.
Down to the wire. At the eleventh hour. Pull an all-nighter. — The work is finished at the last moment.
At the University of California, Berkeley, “instruction in class meetings normally begins ten minutes after the official start time.” A class listed from 10:00 to 10:59 runs from 10:10 to 11:00. At MIT, classes begin five minutes after and end five minutes before the posted times.
Here the institution itself sets the real start, and everyone knows it.
Broadway Direct advises theatergoers to arrive at least 20 minutes before the start time on their ticket. “Some theatres will not seat latecomers at all.” Others “will wait for a suitable break in the performance” before latecomers are taken to their seats.
On May 19, 1962, at a birthday celebration for President John F. Kennedy, the actor Peter Lawford introduced Marilyn Monroe again and again, and each time no one came on stage. When she finally appeared, he introduced her as “the late Marilyn Monroe.” The joke played on her reputation for arriving late.