As of this writing, the government shutdown has lasted 34 days.
The 2018-19 shutdown holds the record for the longest shutdown. It lasted 35 days. We’ll tie that tomorrow. After that, as of November 5th, it’s a whole new record. Yee-freakin’-ha.
What The Shutdown Is Doing To Travelers
As the closure continues, hundreds of thousands of federal employees have been furloughed. Hundreds of thousands of others are working without a paycheck. Research grants are paused. Many national parks are closed. SNAP benefits have dried up (although thanks to judges with saner heads than those of certain Republicans, including the president, that’s expected to hopefully be fixed with emergency funds later this week). Airports, including Boston Logan, LAX, Chicago O’Hare, Orlando, Newark-Liberty and many more, face delays due to TSA and air traffic control staffing (here’s where you can keep up-to-date on which airports are having meltdowns at any given moment).
And in a spate of schadenfreude, it’s not just us ordinary citizens who’ve been stuck with hours-long delays at the airports.
Even Senators Are Stuck In Airport Chaos
Late last week, some senators, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo, were stranded in Washington D.C. at the end of their workweek because Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) was one of the airports affected by a shortage of air traffic controllers.
From The Hill:
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) revealed to reporters that he would be stuck in D.C. longer than expected because of the turmoil at National Airport and warned that flight problems are likely to get worse in the days and weeks ahead.
“I’m delayed,” Thune told reporters when asked if he was impacted by the traffic snarl.
Womp womp.
Barrasso went into more detail and said what any good politician would say. He told reporters he didn’t worry about his flight but instead, “I worry about the flights of thousands and thousands of people. We need to make sure that the flying public is protected, and we need to make sure that the best way to do that is to pay these folks and open the government.”
Well, yeah.
From MSNBC:
Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., also acknowledged the “burden” air traffic controllers and other essential federal workers face without pay. Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, told reporters he fears air traffic controllers might leave their profession and never come back.
Said Moreno: “We’re messing with people’s lives. There’s air traffic controllers that are having to make decisions that they didn’t think they’d have to make.”
No End In Sight
Unfortunately, both sides continue to blame each other. Instead of, you know, coming to work and working with each other.
“The president can end this,” said Markey. “The Republicans can end it with one vote. They just have to come back to the table, sit down, negotiate with the Democrats over the health care subsidies, over the food programs for the poorest in the nation.”
“If he does that, then air traffic controllers, the military, all other federal employees can then go back to work and get their paychecks,” Markey said.
Fingers crossed it happens sooner rather than later.
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