Ava Finnerty said she enjoyed her vacation in Florida until she couldn’t get home. The recent government shutdown trapped the Finnerty family in the sunshine state.
“At first, I felt nervous because I didn’t know when I was going to go home,” Finnerty said “Then, I felt a bit better because we booked another flight, and I knew I would be getting home.”
Finnerty, a fifth-grader, said she and her family mostly just sat around and waited because there was nothing really to do. She is one of many people impacted by the government shutdown that happened from October to mid-November this year. A government shutdown happens when politicans disagree on how to spend money. According to Time for Kids, almost 750,00 people who worked for the federal government stopped working because they stopped getting paid. That included airport workers, so there weren’t enough people to run security and control flights. That caused long lines and flight delays or cancellations.
Kate Galluuci, a fifth-grade teacher, also got stuck. She and her husband were visiting one of their sons in Chicago, but got trapped in the city due to the shutdown. Eventually, they rented a car and drove the 12 hours back to New Jersey. She missed some time from her classroom.
“I felt horrible because all my flights were getting cancelled because of the traffic controllers,” Gallucci said.
Air travel has mostly gone back to normal because Congress passed a bill and President Donald Trump signed it. Now that the shutdown is over, things are mostly back to normal at airports. According to TIME for Kids, a government shutdown also happened in the U.S.A. in December 2018.
