The US government has ordered a halt to work on millions of dollars in aviation-related infrastructure projects because special funding legislation was not passed last week, officials said Monday. The halts have been called in addition to thousands of federal workers being out of work since Congress' failure last week to pass a bill keeping the country's aviation authority running.
Some 4,000 workers with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) were told to stay home beginning Saturday, after congressional authorisation for several FAA programs expired at 12:01 am that day. As a result, FAA employees in 35 states, as well as in Puerto Rico and Washington, DC are furloughed without pay, US officials said. Now, the aviation infrastructure projects have been ordered to a halt.
"Construction workers across America will lose their jobs and local communities will be hurt the longer this goes on. Congress needs to pass an FAA bill to prevent further economic damage," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said. "This is no way to run the best aviation system in the world," he stressed.