FAA to cut air travel as record shutdown rolls on

What happened

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy Wednesday announced a 10% reduction in flights across 40 “high volume” U.S. airports, starting Thursday. He said the Federal Aviation Administration was cutting hundreds of flights to “alleviate the pressure” on air traffic controllers, who have been working without pay since the beginning of what is now the longest government shutdown on record.

President Donald Trump told Senate Republicans on Wednesday that the shutdown was a “big factor, negative for the Republicans,” in Tuesday’s elections, and they needed to “get the government back open soon — and really, immediately.” Democrats have been demanding a negotiated settlement to the standoff, but Trump said “the only way” to end the shutdown was for GOP senators to “terminate the filibuster.”

Who said what

Trump is clearly “itching to get out of the shutdown in a way that does not require him to work with Democrats,” Semafor said, but he’s “starting to complicate what was once a simple GOP strategy: Lean on Senate Democrats until they break.” Instead, Democrats “hardened their resolve” after sweeping Tuesday’s elections, The Associated Press said. And Trump’s fruitless push for Senate Republicans to end the filibuster could actually “spur them to deal with the Democrats.”

“The election results ought to send a much-needed bolt of lightning to Donald Trump that he should meet with us to end this crisis,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday. But pressure is building on both sides, and “turmoil in the nation’s air travel system” has long been seen as “one of the biggest pain points to force a deal,” The New York Times said.

Duffy’s “unprecedented” flight cuts “could affect cargo operations as well as commercial travelers” and potentially “scramble travel plans in the run-up to the busy Thanksgiving travel period,” The Washington Post said. “There’ll be frustration,” Duffy said at a press conference. “But in the end, our sole role is to make sure that we keep this airspace as safe as possible.”

What next?

Duffy said the FAA would release the list of affected airports Thursday, after talking with airline executives. Senate Democrats are meeting today to hash out their “larger shutdown strategy, including how hard to press Republicans for an agreement on extending the expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies,” Politico said.

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