Iron County is in the “bullseye” for the heaviest snowfall, with overall totals of 30 inches or more anticipated before the storm tapers off there tomorrow morning.
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For far northern Wisconsin, the National Weather Service predicts peak snow totals of between 1 to 3 feet with potential blizzard conditions near Lake Superior.
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Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia. (Photo by Tim Brown/Getty Images)
The Federal Aviation Administration early Monday lifted an order that airlines cut domestic flights to 40 major U.S. airports, as air traffic control staffing levels improve following the six-week government shutdown.
The move came just before the busiest travel week of the year, though it was unclear how long it would take for airlines to resume normal operations.
The FAA’s safety team recommended ending the restrictions after seeing only one staffing trigger affect travel Sunday, according to an agency press release. There were 81 staffing triggers on Nov. 8, a few days before the end of the longest shutdown in U.S. history.
“I want to thank the FAA’s dedicated safety team for keeping our skies secure during the longest government shutdown in our nation’s history and the country’s patience for putting safety first,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in the release. “Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, controllers have returned to their posts and normal operations can resume.”
The government reopened after a 43-day shutdown on Nov. 12.
Air traffic controllers were required to work without pay during the shutdown, leaving many to pursue second jobs and the workforce overstressed. The order to reduce flights, peaking at 6% at major airports, was meant to reduce that stress.
The banners at the tops of major U.S. airline websites warning of canceled flights disappeared by Monday morning.
One carrier, Southwest, replaced it with a message that its normal schedule would resume Monday.
“Good news, the US government shutdown has ended,” the message read. “Our full schedule resumes on Nov 17. Book your next trip with confidence today.”
Planes line up on the tarmac at LaGuardia Airport on Nov. 10, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — The record 43-day government shutdown that ended Wednesday night scrambled air travel, interrupted food assistance and forced federal workers to go without a paycheck for weeks.
It also cost the U.S. economy about $15 billion per week, White House Council of Economic Advisers Director Kevin Hassett told reporters Thursday.
As the government began to reopen Thursday, officials were working to untangle those issues and others.
But in some areas, the processes for getting things back to normal after such a lengthy shutdown will also take time.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday night signed a package passed by Congress reopening the government, which closed on Oct. 1 after lawmakers failed to pass a stopgap spending bill.
The Federal Aviation Administration’s shutdown plan, announced last week by Administrator Bryan Bedford and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, was to reduce flights to 40 major airports by 10%.
As of Thursday afternoon, the FAA had not lifted the order restricting flights. But the agency did stop ramping up the percentage of those affected.
The FAA started by asking airlines to cancel 4% of flights Nov. 7. A Wednesday order halted the rate at 6%.
That was enough to cause major disruptions to travel, and it remained unclear Thursday how long it would take to resume normal operations.
In a statement, Airlines for America, the trade group representing the nation’s commercial air carriers, welcomed the end of the shutdown but was vague about how much longer air travelers would see disruptions. The statement noted the upcoming holiday as a possible milestone.
“When the FAA gives airlines clearance to return to full capacity, our crews will work quickly to ramp up operations especially with Thanksgiving holiday travel beginning next week,” the group’s statement said.
The FAA and Transportation Department did not return messages seeking updates Thursday.
The reduction in flights was meant to ease pressure on air traffic controllers, who worked through the shutdown without pay.
Many missed work as they pursued short-term jobs in other industries. Duffy said that left the controllers on the job overstressed and possibly prone to costly mistakes.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sought to reward other federal workers at airports, those employed by her department’s Transportation Security Administration, with $10,000 bonuses if they maintained high attendance records during the shutdown.
Noem handed out checks to TSA workers in Houston on Thursday and said more could come.
Hundreds of thousands of federal workers who had been furloughed returned to the office Thursday and those who had been working without pay will continue their duties knowing their next paycheck should be on time.
All workers will receive back pay for the shutdown, in accordance with a 2019 law that states employees “shall be paid for such work, at the employee’s standard rate of pay, at the earliest date possible after the lapse in appropriations, regardless of scheduled pay dates.”
A spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget said the White House has urged agencies to get back pay to employees “expeditiously and accurately.”
Agencies will need to submit time and attendance files, and payroll processors can then issue checks. According to the spokesperson, agencies have different pay schedules and payroll processors, and “discrepancies in timing and pay periods are a result of that.”
The office estimates that workers will receive a “supercheck” for the pay period from Oct. 1 to Nov. 1 on the following dates:
Nov. 15
Nov. 16
Nov. 17
Nov. 19
Doreen Greenwald, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said in a statement Wednesday that federal workers across all agencies “should not have to wait another minute longer for the paychecks they lost during the longest government shutdown in history.”
“The anxiety has been devastating as they cut back on spending, ran up credit card debt, took out emergency loans, filed for unemployment, found temporary side jobs, stood in line for food assistance, skipped filling prescriptions and worried about the future. Federal employees should receive the six weeks of back pay they are owed immediately upon the reopening of the federal government,” said Greenwald.
The union represents workers at 38 federal agencies and offices.
States Newsroom spoke to several furloughed federal workers who attended a special food distribution event during the shutdown.
The American Federation of Government Employees, one of multiple unions that sued the Trump administration over layoffs during the shutdown, said its members were used “as leverage to advance political priorities,” according to a statement issued Tuesday by the union’s national president, Everett Kelley.
The AFGE, which according to the union represents roughly 820,000 federal workers, did not immediately respond for comment Thursday.
The shutdown-ending deal reinstated jobs for fired federal employees and prohibits any reductions in force by the administration until Jan. 30.
A statement released Thursday by a group of federal workers across agencies struck a different tone on the shutdown and praised the 40 senators and 209 representatives who voted against the temporary spending bill deal.
“The fight mattered. It changed the conversation. More members of the American public now understand that Trump is shredding the Constitution,” according to the statement issued by the Civil Servants Coalition.
The coalition also noted, “Even though the government is reopening, none of us will be able to fully deliver our agency’s missions. Our work has been exploited and dismantled since January through harmful policies and illegal purges of critical staff.”
The group emailed the statement as a PDF document to an unknown number of government workers and urged them to “channel that frustration toward action” by contacting their representatives.
The government reopening ended a drawn-out saga over the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which helps 42 million people afford groceries.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture told states in a Thursday memo they “must take immediate steps to ensure households receive their full November allotments promptly.”
The guidance also noted that states should prepare for another shutdown as soon as next October by upgrading systems so that they could allow for partial payments.
A key point of dispute between the administration and those seeking SNAP benefits was the lengthy time the administration said it would take to fund partial benefits.
A Wednesday evening statement from a department spokesperson said full benefits would be disbursed in most states by Thursday night.
Lauren Kallins, a senior legislative director for the National Conference of State Legislatures, said Thursday “states are all working hard to resume full benefits.”
“But there will likely be logistical challenges, depending on a state’s system’s capabilities and whether the state had already issued partial benefits, that may impact how quickly a state is able to push out” benefits, she wrote.
The program, which is funded by the federal government and administered by states, sends monthly payments on a rolling basis.
That means that the day of the month each household receives its allotment varies. Households that usually receive benefits mid-month or later should see no interruption.
But many of the program’s beneficiaries receive their payments earlier in the month, meaning that, depending on their state, they may have missed their November payments.
Some states, including Democrat-run Wisconsin, Oregon and Michigan, began paying full benefits last week after a Rhode Island federal judge ordered the administration to release full November payments and the department issued guidance to states to do so.
The administration then asked the U.S. Supreme Court to pause enforcement of the Rhode Island judge’s order and reversed its guidance to states, telling them to “immediately undo” efforts to pay out full November benefits.
The Department of Justice dropped its Supreme Court case Thursday.
“Because the underlying dispute here is now moot, the government withdraws its November 7 stay application in this Court,” U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote to the high court.
In the trial court, the administration cited the USDA guidance and said it would discuss the future of the litigation with the coalition of cities and nonprofit groups that brought the suit.
Tourists in the nation’s capital have been shut out of the Smithsonian Institution’s 17 free museums and zoo for most of the federal shutdown.
The institution on Friday will open the National Museum of American History, the National Air and Space Museum and the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, an annex of the Air and Space Museum located at Dulles International Airport in Virginia, according to a message posted on the Smithsonian’s website.
All other museums and the National Zoo will open on a “rolling basis” by Nov. 17.
Multiple public-facing agencies, including the National Park Service and Internal Revenue Service, did not respond to States Newsroom’s requests for reopening information.
National parks were closed or partially closed during the shutdown.
Several IRS services were reduced or altogether cut as the funding lapse dragged on. Those disruptions included limited IRS telephone customer service operations and the closure of in-person Taxpayer Assistance Centers.
A Wisconsin native shares experience in the great outdoors biking, camping, canoing and hiking. He explains where locals can visit to enjoy the weather and fall colors.
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After filing for bankruptcy twice in the past year, Spirit Airlines will stop providing service at the Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport early next year.
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People sit in front of windows looking out on the tarmac at Salt Lake City International Airport in Salt Lake City on April 3, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps/Utah News Dispatch)
The 40 airports set to see a 10% reduction in flights during the government shutdown nearly matched the list of the nation’s busiest airports, according to a preliminary list seen by States Newsroom, potentially leading to thousands of flight cancellations across the country.
A 10% reduction at the listed airports would mean 3,300 canceled flights per day, according to Airports Council International-North America, the trade group for airports.
The Federal Aviation Administration had not released an official list of airports by early Thursday afternoon, but three sources familiar with the matter provided tables listing the proposed airports.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Wednesday that the FAA would cut air traffic at 40 major airports starting Friday to help alleviate stress for air traffic controllers who have been working without pay since the federal government shut down on Oct 1.
The airports on the preliminary list are:
While there is significant overlap of the list with the nation’s busiest airports, there are some exceptions.
The busiest passenger airport not included was in Nashville, Tennessee, the 28th-busiest airport in the country in 2024, according to Airports Council International-North America.
Austin, Texas; St. Louis; Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina; Sacramento, California; New Orleans; Kansas City; and San Jose, California, were also among the 40 busiest airports that will not see reductions Friday.
Memphis, Anchorage and Louisville rank outside the top 40 for passenger traffic, but are the top three for cargo movement.
Oakland and Indianapolis ranked just outside the top 40 for passenger travel. Teterboro’s airport did not rank in the group’s top 50 busiest.
A 10% reduction at the listed airports would decrease economic output at airports by about $327 million daily, according to the council.
Because the reductions are to the nation’s busiest airports that serve as hubs for the major airlines, they will also affect airports that aren’t on the list but depend on flights to and from those hubs.
The group’s president and CEO, Kevin M. Burke, said in a statement that the group and its members had adapted to quickly changing conditions during the shutdown, but that they were “reaching a breaking point.”
“The current trajectory is unsustainable,” Burke said. “With the busy holiday season on the horizon, Congress and the administration must come together now to reopen the federal government with a clean, bipartisan continuing resolution, pay federal employees, and restore operational certainty for the millions of air travelers who take to the skies every day.”
At a press conference Wednesday, Duffy said the decision was made to keep flying safe. He urged overworked air traffic controllers not to work second jobs, but was “not naive” that many would have to in order to pay their bills.
He said the agency’s decision was made to prevent any accidents that could result from overworked controllers, while assuring the flying public that commercial air travel remained extremely safe.
President Donald Trump was less explicit during an Oval Office appearance Thursday.
“Fair question,” he said when asked by a reporter if flying remained safe. “Sean Duffy announced they’re cutting in certain areas 10%, and they want to make sure it’s 100% safe. That’s why they’re doing it.”
Some Democratic lawmakers, who have blocked a bill to temporarily reopen the government at fiscal 2025 levels in an effort to force Republicans to negotiate an extension to tax credits for insurance purchased on the Affordable Care Act marketplace, renewed those calls in light of the FAA’s decision.
Sen. Tina Smith, a Minnesota Democrat, said in a statement the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport sees a daily average of 60,000 passengers on 750 flights.
She called on Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to negotiate with her party on the expiring health insurance tax credits to reopen the government “so we don’t see the impacts like the ones at MSP.”
“The only path forward is through negotiating, so air traffic in the skies above Minnesota and the country can keep operating safely and at full capacity and our government can finally open up again,” she said.
House Transportation and Infrastructure ranking Democrat Rick Larsen of Washington state called the Duffy move “drastic and unprecedented” and requested the FAA share data that went into the decision.
He also called for an end to the shutdown to allow air traffic controllers to be paid.
“Shutting down parts of our National Airspace System is a dramatic and unprecedented step that demands more transparency,” he said. “The FAA must immediately share any safety risk assessment and related data that this decision is predicated on with Congress. If we want to resolve issues in the NAS, let us fix health care, open government and pay transportation and aviation safety workers.”
A plane prepares to land at Newark Liberty International Airport. (Photo by Dana DiFilippo/New Jersey Monitor)
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Wednesday the Federal Aviation Administration would restrict air travel in 40 “high-traffic” areas of the country to relieve pressure on air traffic controllers who have been working without a paycheck since Oct. 1.
The cutbacks will start Friday, Duffy said at an afternoon press conference.
He and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said they would share more details, including which airports would be affected, Thursday.
The officials emphasized the measure was proactive to prevent a safety failure, and they said air travel remained extremely safe.
“We’re noticing that there’s additional pressure that’s building in the system,” Duffy said. “Our priority is to make sure that you’re safe.”
Duffy did not specify the locations that will see a reduction in air traffic, but said the decisions were based on data of the locations where such pressure is increasing.
While the administration has so far avoided large-scale travel problems during the government shutdown that began Oct. 1, Duffy and Bedford said they were seeing strain on the air traffic controllers.
Air traffic controllers are considered exempt federal employees, meaning they must work, but are not paid, during the shutdown. Some are taking second jobs to make ends meet, leading to fatigue, Duffy said.
Duffy said the restrictions would likely lead to more cancellations, which he said he was “concerned about,” but decided to prioritize safety.
“We had a gut check of, what is our job?” he said. “Is it to make sure there’s minimal delays or minimal cancellations, or is our job to make sure we make the hard decisions to continue to keep the airspace safe? That is our job, is safety.”
Engineer and TV host Emily Calandrelli came to Capitol Hill Wednesday, Oct. 29, as part of an effort to require the U.S. Transportation Security Administration to enforce a policy that allows parents to bring breast milk, formula and supplies on planes. She is among many moms who say they have faced scrutiny traveling with breast milk and ice packs. (Photo by Sofia Resnick/States Newsroom)
Brinda Sen Gupta was traveling by plane for work last month without her infant but with gel packs she would need to keep her breast milk cool on the return flight. Knowing how hard it can be to get through airport security with breastmilk and infant-feeding supplies, Sen Gupta arrived extra early and prepared.
Sure enough, a U.S. Transportation Security Administration agent objected to Sen Gupta’s gel packs, she said. She took out her phone and showed a screenshot of TSA’s current policy. It stems from a 2016 law and states that breast milk, formula and toddler drinks are considered “medically necessary liquids” and are allowed in carry-on baggage in quantities greater than 3.4 ounces. The policy expressly allows breast milk and formula cooling accessories like ice and gel packs, and states a child does not have to be present for a parent to carry these supplies.
Despite the law, women continue to report issues with TSA security in airports across the country, saying many workers are not trained on their own policy.
“The TSA agent had to ask their supervisor to come,” Sen Gupta said. The supervisor reviewed the policy and allowed the gel packs through, she said, “but it was annoying to me, because I had to add extra time before I went to make sure that I could have this conversation with them.”
Sen Gupta was among several D.C. chapter leaders of the national nonprofit Chamber of Mothers who gathered in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Oct. 29, to advocate for the passage of the Bottles and Breastfeeding Equipment Screening (BABES) Enhancement Act. Introduced in the House by Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, the bill would require an audit by the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security within one year of enactment to ensure the policy is being enforced and workers are being trained on how to inspect infant-feeding supplies in a way that is sanitary.
The bill has been introduced in Congress three years in a row but failed to pass despite bipartisan support. In May for the first time the bill cleared the Senate, where it was cosponsored by Democratic Sens. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, and Republican Sens. Steve Daines of Montana and Ted Cruz of Texas. It has advanced in the House, where it has 26 cosponsors, including five Republicans.
“We don’t actually need to change the policies. We need to enforce them, to have some oversight for when the policy isn’t adhered to and how they’re held accountable for those missteps,” said Emily Calandrelli, an engineer and science TV host, who brought attention to the issue after her story of being escorted out of an airport security line because of her ice packs went viral.
Calandrelli said she is unaware of major pushback to the bill in the U.S. House, but she is not certain there will be enough support to move the legislation anytime soon, especially as the federal government shutdown is about to enter its second month.
She said she is hopeful that Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida, one of the first Republicans to sign on, will recruit more members of her party.
“At this point, we need Republicans to really lead the charge to help get to the finish line,” Calandrelli said.
In the meantime, moms who relayed their recent TSA experiences at the Chamber of Mothers event said parents traveling with infant-feeding supplies should prepare themselves for traveling — have TSA’s policy ready on their phones and arrive well ahead of time.
Travel security lines may be even slower or flights may be delayed during the shutdown, too, as federal workers like air traffic controllers and TSA agents work without pay.
Bri Adams, another Chamber of Mothers D.C. chapter leader, said she has been dealing with the headache of nursing while frequently traveling for work for the past few years. A breast milk overproducer who had to pump frequently to maintain her supply, she said agents would handle her milk or supplies in ways that were not sanitary. Over time, she learned to advocate for herself.
“I literally had it up on my phone, the regulations on the TSA website, ready to go, and I pretty much just acted a lot more confident,” Adams said. “This is what I’m doing, and I’m taking breast milk that’s thawed and frozen at the same time, and you’re going to let me on because you can.”
TSA has not yet responded to requests for comment.
A driver parked the Chamber of Mothers’ black and red bus across the street from the U.S. Department of Labor, which ordinarily would have meant lots of foot traffic. But on the 29th day of the shutdown, the sidewalks and streets were largely empty of the typical tourists and federal workers, many who were either furloughed without pay or working without pay.
The bus has stopped in nine cities over the last couple of months. Lexie Wooten said she has been to every stop, where the group’s been asking moms, “What would make motherhood easier for you?” Overwhelmingly, responses have been about economic support and paid family leave, she said.
Wooten said she could feel the economic anxiety as Americans brace for cuts to health and food assistance programs for people with low incomes, exacerbated by the shutdown. As States Newsroom has reported, temporarily losing food assistance like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program could lead to more pregnancy complications.
“People are broke, and it makes everything harder,” Wooten said.
Chamber of Mothers CEO Erin Erenberg said the organization now has 43 local chapters in 30 states and about 100,000 members nationwide, and focuses on policies meant to improve access to maternal health care, paid parental leave and affordable child care. Erenberg, who is also an intellectual property attorney, cofounded the nonprofit in 2021 with a group of fellow working moms after paid family leave was cut from former President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan. One of the state bills they’ve worked on since is Arizona’s HB 2332, a maternal mental health bill, which Gov. Katie Hobbs signed in May.
Erenberg said the Trump administration, through the office of the vice president and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has reached out to her organization to collaborate. But before the group would work with the White House, she said there are some nonnegotiable terms, which include preserving and expanding access to affordable health care, Medicaid and SNAP — all impacted by recent federal spending policies.
“So far, this administration hasn’t shown that they’re fully behind what we advocate for,” Erenberg said. “With pronatalism, we have repeatedly said, great, you want people to have more babies? … We need paid leave, we need affordable child care, and we need you to invest in what actually would make us healthy … and survive childbirth.”
This story was originally produced by News From The States, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Wisconsin Examiner, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
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