Sep 27, 2023, 5:19 PM

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The United States is currently on the brink of a government shutdown, which could cause nonessential government functions to come to a halt and impact government employees.  

For transportation purposes, that could lead to significant delays and longer wait times for travelers at airports across the country.  

“We can’t afford a shutdown right now because of the disruptions that it would cause to transportation,” said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. “Look at aviation, where we've made enormous progress after the COVID-driven disruptions we saw a year ago, cancellations are back down to normal after everything we went through last summer. This summer, they're actually a little bit below where they were before COVID. But in order to keep that going, we've got to be able to hire air traffic controllers." 

During the government shutdown in 2019, hundreds of Transportation Security Administration officers called out from work, with many nonessential employees forced to find other ways to make money.