Authorities shutdown reside updates as California airport goes with out air site visitors controllers on account of staffing scarcity

Chatting with reporters on Tuesday, Johnson stated he is positive there “will likely be quite a lot of dialogue” about whether or not furloughed employees obtain backpay, not saying whether or not they are going to or will not be. 

“It’s true that in earlier shutdowns, many or most of them have been paid for the time that they had been furloughed. However there may be new authorized evaluation, I do not know the small print, I simply noticed a headline this morning, I am not learn in on it and I have not spoken to the White Home about it, however there are some authorized analysts who’re saying that is probably not acceptable or obligatory when it comes to the regulation requiring that backpay be offered,” Johnson stated, in what seemed to be a reference to the memo circulating across the White Home from the OMB basic counsel. “So I am positive there will likely be quite a lot of dialogue about that.”

“If that’s true, that ought to flip up the urgency and the need of Democrats doing the suitable factor right here,” Johnson added. 

Johnson had a different message than the president did Monday, with Johnson saying “real pain is being felt by real people” because of the shutdown. Mr. Trump told reporters there “hasn’t been a great deal of pain” yet because of the shutdown. 

“Last night, the Senate Democrats, the same group, voted again to keep the government closed,” Johnson told reporters on Tuesday. “So that was their fifth vote to shut the government down on the American people. It is regrettable and sad and real pain is being felt by real people because of these political shenanigans.” 

On Monday, Mr. Trump disagreed with a reporter’s premise that Americans are experiencing pain because of the shutdown. 

“Up until now, there hasn’t been a great deal of pain,” he said Monday afternoon. “There could be a great deal of pain, but up until now, there hasn’t been.”

Johnson said Tuesday that the shutdown “results in crippling economic losses right now.” Each week of a shutdown translates to $15 billion in lost GDP, he said.

The Trump administration has not determined yet whether it intends to give furloughed workers backpay, even though the administration doesn’t believe current federal law requires them to do so, a senior White House official said. It’s an ongoing discussion. 

Federal officials have flagged more air traffic control facilities for low staffing levels in recent days than they have since the summer of 2022 when the post-COVID travel boom sent delays and cancellations soaring, according to a CBS News Data analysis of FAA airspace advisories.

On Saturday evening, the national airspace operations advisory flagged 13 different FAA facilities for concerningly-low staffing at once. That is the largest number since August 13, 2022, when 15 facilities were flagged, according to the analysis of more than 10,000 advisories.

Not all flags result in delays, which only affected facilities in Atlanta, Chicago and Austin on Saturday. On Monday, when up to 12 facilities were flagged at once, the situation was different. 

Advisories warned staffing would cause average 40-minute delays to Denver, 53-minute delays to Newark, 30-minute delays to Detroit and Teterboro, 40-to-60-minute delays to Las Vegas and 30-45-minute delays to Phoenix and San Diego. 

Flights up the East Coast were constrained into certain routes due to low staffing at the FAA’s Washington Center facility, and the Burbank tower reached “ATC Zero conditions,” because no air traffic control services were available due to staffing, resulting in 150-minute delays.

A White House memo circulating suggests furloughed workers are not guaranteed compensation for the time they don’t work during the government shutdown, an administration official said. CBS News has not yet reviewed the memo. 

A federal law passed in 2019, the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act, is meant to ensure backpay for federal workers who are involuntarily placed on leave or who have to continue working without pay during a shutdown. That last was passed during the last government shutdown of 2018-2019, which lasted 35 days during Mr. Trump’s first term. Mr. Trump signed the 2019 law. 

A Trump administration official called the 2019 law in question “sloppily” written, saying lawmakers didn’t consult with the Office of Management and Budget at the time over the wording of the law. 

“The appropriation language says that non-furloughed employees do get back paid because that’s covered in appropriations,” the Trump administration official said. ” “What the sloppy language says … is if you’re furloughed, it does not cover your salary. It’s very obvious.”

— Olivia Rinaldi, Ed O’Keefe

Appearing on “Fox and Friends” on Tuesday morning, Duffy said the government shutdown is making it even “more challenging” to hire much-needed air traffic controllers at a time when there is already a shortage of them. 

Duffy said the U.S. is “2,000 short” of the needed number or air traffic controllers. 

“So what we did is supercharge, get more controllers into the academy, and then when they get out of the academy, it takes them anywhere from a year to two and a half years to get certified on the system,” he said. “But also, when they get to their assigned tower, there’s a support staff that helps train them up. And this is affecting their ability for new controllers to get trained. So it has a rippling effect at a time when we’re trying to get more controllers and this shutdown is making it more challenging.” 

Explaining the flight delays and slowed air traffic in California, Duffy said they’re “going to make sure the airspace is safe.” 

“So what we do is we’ll slow traffic, we’ll shut down traffic, and that’s what you saw in Burbank,” he said. “We saw, you know, significant delays because controllers weren’t there.”

The Senate is expected to vote again Tuesday on competing measures to fund the government after the bills fell short of the 60 votes needed for a fifth time on Monday.

Republicans have been pushing for a House-passed measure to keep the government funded until Nov. 21, while Democrats have a separate measure to fund the government through October that would also extend health insurance tax credits, which has become Democrats’ key demand in the funding fight. Republicans are aiming to peel off support from Democrats for their measure, but they failed to pick up any new support on Monday.

With 53 Republicans in the upper chamber, support from Democrats is needed to advance a measure to fund the government. When the House-passed bill first received a vote in the Senate, just one Democrat crossed the aisle to support it. On the next vote, which came last week, two more senators crossed the aisle to back it. But since then, Republicans have been unable to peel off any additional support from Democrats in two more attempts.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said ahead of the vote Monday that the chamber would continue voting on the same competing bills over and over, despite the lack of progress. 

President Trump said in a Truth Social post Monday night that he’s open to negotiating with Democrats on health care, but only after they vote to reopen the government — clarifying his stance after saying earlier Monday that he’s open to a deal with Democrats on health insurance tax credits.

“I am happy to work with the Democrats on their Failed Healthcare Policies, or anything else, but first they must allow our Government to re-open,” the president wrote in a Truth Social post. “In fact, they should open our Government tonight!”

Mr. Trump had referenced health care hours earlier when he told reporters: “We have a negotiation going on right now with the Democrats that could lead to very good things.” 

Democrats have sought an extension of Affordable Care Act tax credits in exchange for reopening the government. But congressional Republicans have said they aren’t willing to discuss health care until after the government reopens, so Mr. Trump’s initial comments Monday came as a surprise to some Democrats. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the upper chamber, said the president’s comment “isn’t true” and said negotiations with the White House are not taking place.

Later Monday, Mr. Trump said he believes progress is being made on resolving the shutdown, despite  congressional Democrats and Republicans saying they remain far apart on a deal to fund the government.

“I guess we’re making progress,” Mr. Trump told Newsmax host Greg Kelly on Monday night, before saying “they should have never shut it down,” referring to Democrats.

Staffing issues at some air traffic control towers are growing amid the government shutdown. The Burbank airport near Los Angeles went several hours without air traffic controllers on Monday night, and there were staffing issues elsewhere as well as air traffic controllers work without pay, though the staffing issues have yet to lead to a spike in flight cancellations. 

Federal Aviation Administration officials said the Hollywood Burbank Airport airport was anticipating no air traffic controllers from 4:15 p.m. to 10 p.m. PT Monday, causing significant delays, while some pilots were redirected to other facilities with staffing that could handle the traffic.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom blamed President Trump for the staffing issues in a post on social media Monday, writing: “Burbank Airport has ZERO air traffic controllers from 4:15pm to 10pm today because of YOUR government shutdown.”

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy responded by blaming Democrats for the shutdown, writing in a post on X: “If you’re looking for someone to blame, look in the mirror — we all know it’s your favorite thing to do.”

Duffy said earlier Monday that there’s been an increase in air traffic controllers calling out sick since the shutdown began, which could cause flight delays.