The entire US government is under threat of shutdown from one minute past midnight on Sunday morning, October 1, if Congress does not pass a bill to keep short-term funding flowing while negotiations on government spending for the next year are underway.
The impasse has allegedly been created by Republican representatives’ in-fighting – they cannot agree what should be in the short-term funding bill.
If the bill is not passed by the deadline, hundreds and thousands of federal workers, including airport staff, could be furloughed, leaving flight passengers facing significant delays and longer waiting times, reported usatoday.com.
Although essential travel services (including air traffic control, airport security, customs and border protection, passport and visa processing) will continue, some workers will not get paid during the shutdown and will have to wait until the shutdown ends to receive their pay check.
In the past, the same situation has incurred the wrath of some of these workers, such as ATNS personnel. During the 2019 shutdown, air traffic controllers starting calling in sick at much higher rates after about two weeks of shutdown, and some aviation safety inspectors also stopped working, says usatoday.com. According to the publication, this accelerated Congress’s progress on addressing the funding impasse.
The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) funding will also run out on September 30. Although the FAA’s essential employees will continue working even if the funding lapse occurs, getting the separate aviation authorisation bill passed will be an additional challenge to the aviation agency’s ability to continue functioning. This could potentially affect both domestic and international travel to the US.
