The government is finally set to re-open this week after the Senate advanced a funding agreement to keep the lights on through the end of January. Despite the resolution, the airline industry and the administration of nutrition programs could still be feeling significant hangovers weeks from now.
The Senate passed a funding measure late Monday night, with 60 senators voting yes and 40 senators voting no. The bill would fully fund certain aspects of the government, including SNAP—also known as food stamps—through next September. However, other agencies will face a fiscal cliff at the end of January.
The funding bill passed by the Senate on Monday will almost certainly be passed by the House and signed by President Trump before the end of the day on Wednesday. A nearly identical measure passed the House in September despite Democrats’ objections. The opposition party is still demanding extensions of health insurance subsidies, though those are not being addressed in the current funding bill. Speaker Mike Johnson expects the House to pass the bill by Wednesday.
Once the president puts his pen to paper to re-open the government, the gears will start moving again, but the effects of the longest shutdown in history will likely still be felt.
Just look at the shutdown that began in December 2018 and ended in January 2019, which, before this current funding lapse, was the longest shutdown in American history. Nick Daniels, the president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association who represents the vast majority of air traffic controllers in their union, said Monday that there is no way to tell exactly how long it will take for flights to return entirely to their normal schedule, though he promised that controllers would be getting back to work as soon as possible.
“You can’t predict what the issues are, because, again, if the shutdown is to end tomorrow, controllers still haven’t been paid yet,” Mr. Daniels said Monday. “We’re going to have to continue working through the issues.”
“Even though there is a new light at the end of the tunnel,” he added, “every single day, an air traffic controller is still facing the issues that they had yesterday, and they’re getting worse every single day.”
“We will continue to work with the administration,” Mr. Daniels said. “We will do everything to get it back fully on track, but it should show that a government shutdown is not sustainable and in no way should air traffic controllers ever be used as a political pawn in the process.”
Kevin Hassett, director of the White House’s National Economic Council, concurred with Mr. Daniels’ assessment during an interview with Fox News on Monday. He told the outlet that flight schedules should be “almost back to normal” by the weekend after Thanksgiving—nearly three weeks from now.
According to data compiled by FlightAware, there were more than 23,000 delays at airports across the country on Monday. The total number of cancellations was more than 2,700. In just the last four days, nearly 10,000 flights were canceled.
Nutrition programs could also face a bit of a hangover once the government re-opens this week, as is currently expected. States are calculating how to send out SNAP payments based on the 35 percent reduction mandated by the Department of Agriculture. However, that case is still before a federal appellate court after a judge in Rhode Island ordered the administration to send out full benefits for the month of November.
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has placed a hold on the Rhode Island judge’s order to send full benefits while the appeals process plays out. If the government does re-open this week, then the case will become irrelevant since SNAP will be fully funded through the end of the next fiscal year.
It is unclear, however, when those full benefit funds will be sent to the states by the federal government. A spokesman for the Department of Agriculture did not immediately respond to a request for comment about how quickly the nutrition programs will be funded once the government re-opens.
https://www.nysun.com/article/the-shutdown-is-likely-ending-soon-though-the-airline-industry-and-nutrition-programs-could-feel-significant-hangovers
