“JEOPARDY”
More than 60,000 air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration officers are now working without pay, and the White House has warned that increased absenteeism could create chaos at check-in lines.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said in late October that five per cent of flight delays had been the result of staffing shortages but that number had now increased to more than 50 per cent.
He warned at the time that the “longer the shutdown goes on, and as fewer air traffic controllers show up to work, the safety of the American people is thrown further into jeopardy”.
However, Democrats and Republicans have both remained unwavering over the main sticking point in the shutdown: health care spending.
Democrats say they will only provide votes to end the funding lapse after a deal has been struck to extend expiring insurance subsidies that make health care affordable for millions of Americans.
But Republicans insist they will only address health care once Democrats have voted to switch the lights back on in Washington.
Trump has sought to apply his own pressure to force Democrats to cave by threatening mass layoffs of federal workers and using the shutdown to target progressive priorities.
He repeated on Tuesday his administration’s threat to cut off a vital aid program that helps 42 million Americans pay for groceries for the first time in its more than 60-year history, even though the move was blocked by two courts.
The White House later clarified that it was “fully complying” with its legal obligations and was working to get partial Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program payments “out the door as much as we can and as quickly as we can”.
