NATCA Bookshelf

also threatened to simply close many low-level towers in order to comply with sequestration. NATCA immediately focused on ending the furloughs and a week after the furloughs began, Congress acted by passing the Reducing Flight Delays Act of 2013, which allowed the Secretary of Transportation to transfer $253 million from other FAA accounts to the FAA's operations account in order to prevent reduced operations and reduced staffing of the FAA for the remainder of the fiscal year. 2013 FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN By September 2013, the end of F Y 2013, Congress still had not passed appropriations bills to fund the government for F Y 2014. On October 1, the government was forced to shut down, shuttering much of the FAA along with it, which resulted in more furloughs to FAA employees. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) estimates that these furloughs cost the government $2.5 billion total. 2018 GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWNS In early 2018, Congress failed — on two separate occasions — to pass CRs and the government was shut down for three days between January 20-22, and then again on February 9. On March 23, Congress narrowly avoided its third federal government shutdown in a two-month period when it passed an omnibus spending package that funds the government and also extends FAA authorization through September 30, 2018. Prior to that, Congress was on its fifth consecutive CR and fifth consecutive extension to FAA authorization. POLITICAL CRISES CAUSING THREATS OF A SHUTDOWN Federal employees, including those employed by the FAA, are all negatively affected when political crises, real or manufactured, threaten an agency shutdown, even when a shutdown is averted at the last minute. This affects employee morale and the Agency's ability to plan for long-term projects. Due to contentious budget debates, the government has frequently been on the brink of a shutdown for the past several years. 41

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