Less than two days remain before a government shutdown will go into effect at 12:01 am Sunday if a federal budget deal or continuing resolution isn’t passed through Congress.
A bipartisan proposal passed the Senate, but House Republicans have refused to support it and Speaker Kevin McCarthy has been unable to unify his caucus behind another short-term measure to keep the government open — with the latest vote failing on Friday afternoon.
McCarthy’s goal has been to get a deal passed through the GOP-controlled House to improve the party’s position in negotiations within the Democrat-controlled Senate. However, ultraconservative Republicans have refused to give any ground, all but ensuring a shutdown will go into effect.
Now, McCarthy is telling Republicans in a closed-door meeting that the GOP is running out of options to avoid a shutdown, according to reports.
Essentially, the Republicans can approve the stopgap bill that already failed, agree to the Senate plan or put out a new, "clean” stopgap bill and dare Democrats to stop it. Otherwise, a shutdown will go into effect.
If a shutdown does occur, one industry likely to face a major blow is air travel.
During the last shutdown in 2019, which lasted for 35 days, thousands of air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration personnel worked without pay. As a result, hundreds of officers called out from work, leading to massive flight delays.
“During an Extreme Republican Shutdown, more than 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Officers – in addition to thousands of other Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) personnel – would have to show up to do their critical jobs without getting paid until funding becomes available,” a White House news release said.
All told, there are nearly 2.2 million federal employees, along with 1.3 million active-duty troops. Other than essential workers, employees will be furloughed and unpaid for the duration of the shutdown.
Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com
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