The sequester – known by politicians as “the end of the world” but by citizens as “what is that again?” – has finally started to cause some problems for the public. Airports were hit by these budget cuts which meant air traffic controllers would be furloughed, creating delays and long lines at airports.
Fortunately, Congress decided to act quickly (no, really) and passed a bill to end the Federal Aviation Administration furloughs. But we all know Congress can't get anything right. A spelling error meant this bill couldn't be signed on Friday when it was passed, and instead had to wait until this week.
Supposed delays or not, my flight on Friday didn't experience any problems, and, in fact, landed 40 minutes early. The same happened to two other friends who also traveled this weekend. The only delays we did experience seemed to be random and instigated by the FAA, stopping lines for five minutes at a time for no apparent reason, as well as weather delays in Atlanta. It was difficult to tell whether the furloughs affected the airports or whether the FAA wanted the furloughs to affect the airports.
Either way, the bill will be passed this week once Congress updates their spell check in Word, which they haven't done since the Senate last passed a major bill (The Atlantic estimates this was July 15, 2010, when they passed Dodd-Frank). The FAA also said they were ending the furloughs on Sunday evening whether the bill was passed or not, making the rarely-seen speedy effort from Congress even more irrelevant.
