FAA Officially Suspends Employee Furloughs
WASHINGTON (CBSNewYork) -- The Federal Aviation Administration has suspended all employee furloughs, officially ending the flight delays that have plagued the nation all week.
Air traffic facilities will begin to return to their normal staffing levels over the 24 hours to come, and the system will be fully back to normal by Sunday evening, the FAA said.
The move came after Congress approved a bill Friday allowing the U.S. Department of Transportation to shift about $250 million within the agency and put air traffic controllers back on the job full-time, CBS 2's Danielle Nottingham reported Friday.
The bill flew through Congress with bi-partisan support. But Democrats and Republicans continued to blame each other for the across-the-board sequester budget cuts that led to controller cutbacks in the first place.
The air traffic controllers' union applauded the deal. When controllers were forced to begin missing work without pay this week it triggered thousands of delays.
The White House said Congress needs to address the billions of other automatic cuts impacting dozens of federal agencies.
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