Aviation

President Donald Trump looms large on almost every important issue, but it won’t be all about him for some individuals on Roll Call’s list of People to Watch in 2019. 

The financial sector will be learning to survive a less business-friendly environment in the House, and a longtime Democratic lobbyist is well-positioned to lend a hand.

ANALYSIS | Where's POTUS? Donald Trump has gone dark — again. But past is typically prologue with this president, meaning his media blackout is unlikely to last much longer.

His public schedule, as released each day by the White House, has offered few clues. Missing are the usual short lists of meetings with lawmakers, conservative leaders and policy stakeholders, replaced by opaque phrases like “THE PRESIDENT has no public events scheduled” and “Closed Press.”

The Transportation Security Administration seemed to hit bottom last fall when a congressional investigation revealed misconduct by senior agency officials, a jury trial elicited testimony of on-the-job sexual harassment, and an employee survey ranked the TSA one of the worst federal workplaces.

But now as thousands of airport screeners skip work during the government shutdown, the TSA is facing a potential crisis that could hinder air travel for months, damage the struggling agency for years, and threaten aviation security.

Discussions between Senate leaders of both parties on how to end the 35-day government shutdown picked up with renewed urgency Friday as the record-setting government shutdown began halting flights scheduled to land at LaGuardia Airport — in Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer’s home state of New York.

President Donald Trump announced Friday afternoon that a deal had been reached that would fund shuttered government agencies for three weeks while providing time to negotiate funding for the Department of Homeland Security.

The Federal Aviation Administration grounded flights bound to New York’s LaGuardia Airport Friday morning due to “a slight increase” of air traffic control staff calling in sick. 

On Twitter, the FAA posted a notice saying, “We have experienced a slight increase in sick leave at two facilities. We are mitigating the impact by augmenting staffing, rerouting traffic, and increasing spacing between aircraft when needed.”

Worried about “Mass Exodus Monday” when an estimated 120,000 Super Bowl partiers will leave Atlanta en masse, the city is taking matters into its own hands to help keep unpaid airport screeners on the job.

An Atlanta credit union will be offering zero interest loans to Transportation Security Administration employees to try to prevent them from calling in sick after the game, said Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, a Democrat.

A senior senator is now asking whether the Trump administration has been complying with federal law in implementing the partial government shutdown, now entering its fifth week.

Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, whose Virginia constituents include many federal employees in the national capital region, has sent a series of letters to key departments raising some doubts about whether President Donald Trump and his administration is in compliance with the Antideficiency Act.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Brian Uholik is a proud father of a new baby daughter, but he’s also a furloughed trial attorney at the Department of Justice.

Uholik was among the federal employees from Northern Virginia who met Friday morning with Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both Democrats who have been pushing for a quick end to the partial government shutdown.

Lobbying groups and unions are stepping up their campaigns aimed at ending the partial government shutdown, making clear their mounting frustration as the financial pressures hit businesses and furloughed workers alike.

Some sectors, such as those in travel and tourism, are coping with direct disruptions to their businesses, with top destinations such as national parks shuttered. Even seemingly unrelated interests say the shutdown has begun to upend their policy agenda in Washington because the impasse is consuming the time of lawmakers and the administration.

President Donald Trump will address the country at 9 p.m. Tuesday about border security and the partial government shutdown, two days before he will travel to the southern border.

President Trump’s Tuesday evening border security-shutdown remarks will be in the Oval Office, White House Communications Director Bill Shine said Monday. It's the first time he has held a prime-time address from the iconic room.