Thanksgiving travel nightmare looms due to government shutdown: GOP leaders

WASHINGTON — Congress’ game of chicken could cost Americans on Turkey Day.

The ongoing partial government shutdown is at risk of upending holiday travel plans for Thanksgiving if it rages on for a few more weeks, House GOP leaders ominously warned Tuesday.

“Airports will be flooded with flight cancellations and delays amid the busiest time to travel all year, and the list goes on and on,” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) said during a press conference about the consequences of the shutdown.

Since Oct. 1, the government has been partially shut down, which means that air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers are not getting paid.

Because they are deemed essential workers, they are required to show up to work — though there are indications that hundreds have been calling in sick.

Thanksgiving and Christmas tend to be the busiest travel seasons of the year.

Under the Trump administration’s shutdown plan, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) furloughed about a quarter of its workforce — over 11,000 employees. Air traffic controller hiring is still ongoing despite the lack of pay.

Republicans had attempted to prevent a government shutdown by passing a stopgap continuing resolution (CR) to keep the lights on through Nov. 21.

By that point, they hoped to pass the required 12 appropriations bills to fully fund the government for the fiscal year, something it’s required to do annually by Oct. 1 or else there will be a partial shutdown.

While the CR passed the House and has had up to 55 votes in the Senate, Democrats have refused to relent on the filibuster blocking it, which requires a 60-vote threshold to overcome. They’ve demanded an array of concessions on healthcare policy instead.

“As TSA agents and air traffic controllers show up without pay, Democrats brag they won’t budge until planes fall out of the sky,” GOP Conference Chairwoman Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) vented at the press conference.

“Really? Really? Seriously?”

That’s a reference to a CNN story that quoted an anonymous Democratic aide who said the party won’t relent until their demands are met, unless “planes falling out of the sky.”

Amid the shutdown, airports like Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International and Hollywood Burbank have faced shortages, snarling travel.

Just under 60,000 flights in the US were delayed on Sunday, according to FlightAware.

Active duty military personnel are set to miss their first paycheck on Wednesday, though President Trump has vowed to move money around to mitigate that.

Already, the current shutdown is the fourth-longest in US history. The longest spanned 35 days between December 2018 and January 2019.

That shutdown began days before Christmas and lasted several weeks after New Year’s Day. Federal inspectors had warned at the time that the partial shutdown likely impacted safety.