US public employees are completing their first month without salary this week due to the lack of Budgets. And the first serious consequences are already being felt in one of the most delicate points: air traffic controllers. Ronald Reagan Washington Airport just announced that will operate at half service this Thursday due to the lack of air traffic controllers, sick leave due to stress, depression or to look for a second job that I do pay them. A situation that is only going to get worse, and that could unleash an unexpected crisis in the country.
The reduction in operations in Washington applies from 6:30 p.m., Spanish peninsular time, and will last until at least 5 a.m. tomorrow, with average delays of 90 minutes. And the problem is that the lack of controllers has no signs of improving: “It’s only going to get worse,” warned Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
The lack of salaries has meant that controllers have to look for second jobs to pay their bills. This Wednesday, The Administration sent a letter to officials to advise them how to negotiate extensions of their debts with their creditorswaiting for Congress to approve new accounts, something that does not seem to be happening in the short term.
And Duffy is aware of the situation: “I see his stress,” he said in an interview Sunday. “I see a lot of people looking for a second job, they’re out there asking, ‘Can I drive for Uber? Can I find another source of income to make ends meet?’ “But I need my controllers at airports, not at home looking for a second job.” On Saturday there were already 22 alerts at airports throughout the countrybut this is the first time that it affects one of the main ones in the US and the world.
Meanwhile, the two main parties are not even negotiating, as The president, Donald Trump, has refused to talk to the Democrats, and demands that they limit themselves to approving the Republican text without further ado.. The opposition demands adding an item to extend aid to pay for private health insurance, so that monthly payments do not double, as will happen from November 1 for all those who do not have a plan paid for by their companies. The Republicans limit themselves to promising that they will put this debate on the table in the coming months if they approve these budgets as they are, but the Democrats have made it clear that they do not trust them in the slightest, and that they demand voting on both things at the same time.
Meanwhile, The president of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, has not called a single plenary session since mid-Septemberas a way to pressure the Senate, where Democrats have the right of veto, to approve the bills that came out of the Lower House without changes. The biggest problem is that The budget project approved by the House of Representatives expires on November 21, so they will have to approve a new text by then. Democrats ask to ignore this three-week budget proposal and negotiate final ones for the entire year. But, without Trump’s permission, no one in the Republicans dares to move.
Meanwhile, the president does not seem to be in any hurry. Asked about the issue in recent days, Trump himself assured that “after approving the Great and Beautiful Law” of tax reform, “we are now ready for the four years, I don’t need anything more from Congress“For the moment, he has done everything possible, moving items in a dubiously legal manner, to pay the Army’s salaries and little else.
The question now is who will give in first. In 2019, when Trump set what is now the record for government shutdowns, It was the threat of a strike by the air traffic controllers that led the president to give in and approve the text negotiated by the Democrats. At this rate, it does not seem impossible that the resolution comes from the same place.
