(Washington) The budgetary paralysis in the United States on Wednesday became the second longest in the country’s history, with Congress facing growing pressure, particularly from the airline sector, to end this “shutdown”.
Reaching this 22-day mark “is just shameful,” Mike Johnson, the Republican leader of the House of Representatives, said at a press conference.
Republicans and the Democratic opposition are at an impasse in Congress, unable to agree on a new budget after more than three weeks of deadlock.
At the heart of the debate, a disagreement between Donald Trump’s party, on the one hand, which wants to extend the current budget, and the Democrats, on the other, who are calling for an extension of subsidies for health insurance programs for low-income households.
“Democrats continue to make history, but they’re doing it for all the wrong reasons,” added Mike Johnson.
At airports, concern is growing among some 63,000 air traffic controllers and transport security officers, who are not receiving their salaries as long as the paralysis lasts. Considered essential, they are required to work in the meantime.
During the previous “shutdown” in 2019, several of them took sick leave instead of working without pay, which led to significant delays at airports.
This decision put an end to the longest budgetary paralysis in American history, 35 days, already under Donald Trump.
On Tuesday, the American civil aviation regulator (FAA) grounded planes at two airports in Houston, in the south of the country, due to staffing problems, according to its website.
“With each day of government paralysis (…), an additional level of security risks disappearing,” worries Dave Spero, president of the union of aviation security specialists (PASS). “Employees on technical unemployment want to return to work, all employees must be paid. (…) We call on Congress to reopen the government as soon as possible.”
According to estimates from the Bipartisan Policy Center think tank, more than 700,000 federal civil servants are unemployed without pay. Nearly 700,000 others are forced to continue working, but without being paid, until the blockade ends.
