Government shutdown latest: Senators working through the weekend; 1,000 flights canceled

As the gov­ern­ment shut­down reach­es its 39th day, sen­a­tors will be work­ing through the week­end for the first time since the shut­down began, aim­ing to reach a long-await­ed res­o­lu­tion.

By the num­bers:
Repub­li­can lead­ers still need five addi­tion­al votes to fund the gov­ern­ment.

More than 1,000 flights canceled

2:20 p.m. ET — U.S. air­lines again can­celed more than 1,000 flights Sat­ur­day, large­ly due to the gov­ern­ment shut­down and the Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Administration’s direc­tive to reduce air traf­fic.

More than 1,000 flights were also can­celed Fri­day.

Char­lotte Dou­glas Inter­na­tion­al Air­port in North Car­oli­na was the most severe­ly impact­ed, with around 120 arriv­ing and depart­ing flights can­celed by mid­day. Air­ports in Atlanta, Chica­go, Dal­las, Den­ver, and Orlan­do also report­ed major dis­rup­tions. Staffing short­ages in Char­lotte and Newark fur­ther slowed oper­a­tions.

Trump and Vance post on social media

11:30 a.m. ET — Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump sig­naled Sat­ur­day he is unlike­ly to com­pro­mise with Democ­rats push­ing to extend Afford­able Care Act tax cred­its. He post­ed on social media call­ing the ACA “the worst Health­care any­where in the world” and sug­gest­ed Con­gress con­sid­er send­ing mon­ey direct­ly to Amer­i­cans to pur­chase insur­ance.

Vice Pres­i­dent JD Vance shared a screen­shot of the mes­sage on Twit­ter, also sep­a­rate­ly express­ing sup­port for end­ing the Sen­ate fil­i­buster, say­ing Repub­li­cans who want to pre­serve it are “wrong.”

800 flights canceled Saturday morning

9:45 a.m. ET — More than 800 flights had already been can­celed Sat­ur­day, accord­ing to FlightAware.

Con­text:
Not all can­cel­la­tions stem from the FAA’s order, and the affect­ed routes rep­re­sent a small por­tion of total U.S. flights. How­ev­er, can­cel­la­tions are expect­ed to rise as delays build.

Saturday Senate schedule

8:30 a.m. ET — The Sen­ate is set to recon­vene at 12 p.m. ET on Sat­ur­day, Nov. 8.

Democrats’ Friday offer rejected

The Sen­ate failed to reach the 60-vote thresh­old need­ed to pass Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R‑WI) “Shut­down Fair­ness Act,” with the mea­sure falling 53–43. Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump urged law­mak­ers to remain in Wash­ing­ton until an agree­ment is reached.

Back­ground:
Democ­rats are seek­ing nego­ti­a­tions to extend Afford­able Care Act tax cred­its expir­ing at year-end. On Fri­day, Repub­li­cans reject­ed an offer from Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic Leader Chuck Schumer to reopen the gov­ern­ment and extend those sub­si­dies for one year. Major­i­ty Leader John Thune dis­missed the pro­pos­al as a “non­starter.”

SNAP benefits blocked by Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Fri­day grant­ed the Trump administration’s emer­gency request to tem­porar­i­ly block a low­er court order requir­ing full fund­ing for SNAP food aid dur­ing the shut­down.

Some SNAP recip­i­ents in cer­tain states had already begun receiv­ing ben­e­fits.

Nationwide flight delays and cancellations take effect

Air trav­el dis­rup­tions con­tin­ued Sat­ur­day as near­ly 40 air­ports began sus­pend­ing approx­i­mate­ly 4% of flights — a fig­ure expect­ed to rise to 10% if staffing issues per­sist.

The FAA’s move fol­lows pres­sure on air traf­fic con­trollers who have worked with­out pay for over a month. The affect­ed air­ports span more than two dozen states.