Message Follows Government Shutdown

Following the shutdown of the government at midnight on October1, the FAA posted an ‘Emergency’ notice on its website, but it’s somewhat easy to miss and it doesn’t say much anyway: “Portions of the Department of Transportation are currently in shutdown/furlough status due to a lapse in appropriations.”

The notice is displayed in a thin, dark red bar at the very top of the page above the header, and it carries through on all pages of the site.

Continuing, the notice says, “Please continue to monitor this page for updates on DOT’s operating status.” However, no updates have been posted as of Friday, October 3.

It’s been reported that prior to the shutdown, the FAA had been expected to furlough 11,000 employees, or about 25% of the workforce, due to the freeze in spending.

In the face of the emergency declaration, the FAA said that critical aviation safety and security activities will continue to be performed. Approximately 13,000 air traffic controllers will continue to work through the shutdown but will not be paid until the impasse is resolved.

Approximately 50,000 TSA employees who work at airport security checkpoints will also be required to work without pay.

The legislative standoff leading to the shutdown comes at a very inopportune moment as the Department of Transportation and the FAA have just begun working at full steam ahead to rebuild the country’s National Airspace System and the technology and infrastructure that supports it, the air traffic control system, and the hiring of hundreds of additional air traffic controllers.

The FAA is still short by 3,500 certified controllers despite having hired more than 2,000 already. Staffing shortages, when combined with system failures, can and have led to several widespread disruptions in travel due to flight delays and cancellations that ripple and propagate throughout the system and around the country.

We are concerned and urge Congress to do whatever it can to resolve the situation as soon as possible to minimize disruptions and ensure that the work  of rebuilding the system gets back on track.

FMI:  www.faa.gov/