Members of the United States Senate voted on Monday, January 22, 2018 to end the shutdown of the federal government of the United States, which began last week, with 81 senators in support and 18 senators opposed as a result of frantic negotiations which broke through an impasse on the budget…
United States Government Shutdown Ends — For Now
…but the vote approves funds for the government for only 17 days — more specifically, until Thursday, February 8, 2018.
This means that travel services and destinations owned and operated by the federal government of the United States — such as air traffic control, the manning of security checkpoints at airports, and the operation of national parks and monuments — should be fully staffed and uninterrupted once again, with business back to normal until early next month.
This, of course, does not include weather, mechanical issues and other factors which could potentially interrupt your travels to, from and within the United States.
Summary
Some services and destinations were closed during the shutdown — such as national parks, which had already closed their gates and visitor centers over the past couple of days due to a lack of funding as a result of the shutdown.
I am not going to get into the politics of what caused this shutdown of the federal government of the United States to occur in the first place, as it all seems so ridiculously childish — but let us hope that lawmakers conjure a sensible resolution prior to Thursday, February 8, 2018 to avoid yet another shutdown.
Photograph ©2013 by Brian Cohen.
