Though the Trump administration fought efforts to force them to use contingency funds to pay out benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, during the shutdown, a spokesperson for the White House’s budget office insisted this week that beneficiaries would see their accounts fully restored within hours of the federal government reopening.
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About one in eight Americans – 42 million people – rely on SNAP benefits for help in purchasing groceries.
When will air travel get back to normal?
Representatives of the airline industry have estimated it will take about a week for air travel to return to normal after the shutdown. But to keep to that schedule, a few things need to happen.
The Transportation Department must find that air traffic controllers are returning to work in large enough numbers that the threat of staffing triggers – forced delays when facilities are understaffed – is minimal.
Duffy then needs to lift mandated flight restrictions at 40 airports, which began last Friday and were expected to expand in the days ahead.
Travellers wait in line at a Texas airport after airlines cancelled flights.Credit: Bloomberg
On Wednesday night (Thursday AEDT), as the House voted on legislation to end the shutdown, Duffy and the Federal Aviation Administration’s chief said the agency would continue restricting 6 per cent of flights at those airports until further notice.
But officials are hoping operations will recover in time for the Thanksgiving travel rush, which ramps up the weekend before the November 28 holiday.
When will economic data be released?
The government shutdown shuttered the statistical agencies that produce data on employment, inflation, consumer spending and other aspects of the economy, leaving policymakers flying blind at a critical moment for the economy. When the government reopens, that fog will begin to lift, but only gradually. The Bureau of Labor Statistics will probably be able to release job market data from September within a few days of the government reopening. Other reports on September, such as data on retail sales, could also come out relatively quickly.
Volunteers hold boxes of food before loading them into cars of furloughed federal workers at a Capital Area Food Bank distribution site in Alexandria, Virginia.Credit: Bloomberg
But the statistical agencies had to pause new data collection during the shutdown, which means they don’t have any information about what happened in October. Collecting that data will take time, and in some cases may be impossible. The White House recently suggested that it doesn’t expect the Labour Statistics agency to release a consumer price index report for October, although some private-sector economists argue a report is still possible.
Even when the data is released, some of it may come with an asterisk. Many government statistics are based on surveys of households and businesses. When those surveys are delayed, there is a risk that people won’t accurately remember what they were doing during the relevant period.
When will museums and the National Zoo be open?
While national parks generally stayed open during the shutdown with reduced services, Washington, D.C.’s network of Smithsonian museums, including the National Zoo, closed to the public within days of the government closing. Representatives for the museums and zoo did not immediately provide guidance on how long it might take to open their doors to the public once Congress restores the federal government’s funding, but noted that they would put a reopening schedule on their websites.
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The last shutdown may prove to be a guide. On January 25, 2019, Trump signed a bill reopening the federal government after a shutdown that lasted more than 34 days. The Smithsonian museums and the zoo reopened to the public four days later.
When will early-childhood programs come back online?
It could take up to two weeks for the 20 Head Start early-childhood programs that were forced to close temporarily during the shutdown to come back online, said Tommy Sheridan, the deputy director of the National Head Start Association. Head Start is a crucial lifeline for hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged families and children.
In recent days, 20 programs in 17 states and Puerto Rico that served more than 9000 children had been closed temporarily because of the shutdown, he said. It is not clear how quickly each program will receive the funds it needs to restart. Many Head Start programs that had federal funding lapses stayed open with an infusion of money from other sources, including states.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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