DENVER – As the federal government shutdown nears an end, SNAP recipients and travelers are asking when benefits and air travel will return to normal operations.
“For SNAP, it's mostly a matter of making sure that funds are transferred, and states have the ability to transfer those funds directly to EBT cards that allows folks to use those SNAP benefits. So that shouldn't take too long, one or two days,” Dr. Robert Preuhs, chair of the Political Science Department at Metropolitan State University of Denver.
But Preuhs said it’ll take longer for air travel to resume normal operations.
“Air traffic controllers should be back on the job once, you know, within a few days. But still, that's a tougher one, because you have to get the personnel back. And then, of course, there's a backlog with the airlines,” Preuhs said. “That’s if, right, the House ends up passing this in the next day or two, and that's probably going to happen. But there are still possibilities from Republican holdouts, but given the pressure from the Trump administration and the approval of the Trump administration, I expect that the House will pass this in a relatively short period of time.”
According to USA Today, it could take weeks for air traffic to return to normal because, according to Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, the agency is short 1,000 to 2,000 air traffic controllers with retirements accelerating during the shutdown.
On Tuesday, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered more cuts to flights nationwide, including at Denver International Airport.
