Budget paralysis | The Senate moves closer to an agreement, but success is not guaranteed

In the United States, a group of moderate Democrats reached a tentative deal to reopen the government, if Republicans agree to hold a vote on expiring health care subsidies by December. It’s a potential breakthrough as lawmakers seek to end the gridlock.

The deal reached by Senators Jeanne Shaheen, Maggie Hassan and Angus King of Maine would pass three annual spending bills and extend the rest of the government’s funding through the end of January.

That’s according to three people close to the deal, who asked to remain anonymous until the deal is made public.

Senate Democrats met Sunday evening to discuss the proposal.

The government paralysis has lasted for 40 days.

Canceled flights

This prospect of a resolution comes as the chaos at the airports has become the main focus of the political battle over the budget, with each party seeking to blame the other for the troubles experienced by travelers across the country.

More than 2,200 flights were canceled on Sunday in the United States, a much higher figure than on Saturday, according to the specialist site Flightaware. International journeys are essentially spared.

Since Friday, the American aviation regulator, the FAA, has been asking companies to gradually reduce their domestic flight schedule, as a major crossover approaches in the country.

“Air traffic will be reduced to nothing while everyone wants to travel to see their family” on the occasion of the traditional Thanksgiving holiday at the end of November, warned Transport Secretary Sean Duffy on Fox News.

“You’re going to see fewer air traffic controllers coming to work, which means there’s only going to be a handful of flights taking off and landing,” he added.

Since the beginning of October, the American government has been in a situation of budgetary paralysis. Hundreds of thousands of federal civil servants work without pay, including air traffic controllers.

Some of them “will be faced with the idea (…) of finding an extra job to make ends meet”, regretted the Secretary of Transport on CNN.

Rare progress

For weeks, pressure has been mounting on parliamentarians to agree on a way out of the crisis – a pressure which seemed on the way to leading to initial progress on Sunday.

An agreement “is coming closer,” the leader of the Republican majority in the Senate, John Thune, told the American press.

Remember that the budgetary paralysis also disrupts the federal food assistance program which supports 42 million Americans – one in eight – each month. Its non-payment due to the “shutdown” is the subject of legal proceedings, but in the meantime, thousands of beneficiaries are plunged into uncertainty.

With Ulysse Bellier, Agence France-Presse