‘People are really hurting’: From airports to grocery stores, shutdown leaves Americans scrambling

By Eric Bradner, CNN

(CNN) — The impacts of the longest federal government shutdown in United States history are reverberating around the country — leaving millions of Americans in limbo and igniting concerns about an economic downturn.

Frustrated travelers were scrambling as more than a thousand flights were canceled Friday and thousands more were delayed. Those who count on food stamps were in limbo as President Donald Trump’s administration continued fighting in federal court to resist paying full benefits for November. Federal workers who haven’t been paid in weeks said their bills were due and they were running out of options.

With Congress in a stalemate — majority Republicans still short of the 60 votes they need to pass a government funding measure in the Senate, and minority Democrats sticking to their health insurance funding demands — no end to the shutdown is in sight.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, told reporters Friday that the “wheels came off” in compromise talks with Democrats. He told senators to remain in Washington and available for votes this weekend. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats would agree to end the shutdown in exchange for one more year of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies — an attempt to further pressure the GOP to make a deal.

The uncertainty over when the shutdown might end has led to deepening concerns about damage it could do to the overall economy — with one of Trump’s top economic officials sounding the alarm on Friday. National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said on Fox Business that the economic impact of the shutdown is “far worse” than initially expected “because it’s gone on for so long.”

“If we go another month or so, then who knows how bad the economy could be this quarter,” he said.

Frustrated travelers see flights canceled, delayed

A 4% reduction in domestic flights ordered by the Federal Aviation Administration took effect Friday, leading to more than a thousand canceled flights across 40 major airports — with further cuts slated for the weekend due to air traffic controller staffing issues.

In addition to the cancellations, major airports — including those in Washington, Atlanta, San Francisco and Newark — were experiencing major delays due to short-staffed control towers.

Travelers across the country told CNN they feared their plans being upended.

Alicia Leva was set to get married Saturday in South Florida. But with more than half of her guests attending from across the country, Leva said she saw travel plans unraveling fast.

“When I found out about the flight delays, I was just incredibly anxious,” she said. Leva didn’t want to compare her wedding woes to others who have been deeply affected by the government shutdown, but was still mourning her original vision of the couple’s special day.

Traveler Jay Curley had hoped to fly to Wilmington, North Carolina, from Newark International Airport on Thursday night, but was instead going to rent a car, he told CNN in frustration Friday morning.

“People are really hurting out here,” he said. Addressing federal lawmakers, he added: “It’s not just the traveling public, but it’s affecting the whole economy, and you people are to blame.”

When Luana Griffin’s mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer this past week, she booked a flight to go spend a few days with her. Griffin’s trip, from San Diego to Sacramento, is planned for next week, she told CNN. Griffin said she has limited windows of time to be able to see her mom because she is working a contract job. Any delay or cancellation of her return flight could cause her to miss work the next day, she said.

“I have very limited time left with my mom and so many other decisions, this is the last thing I need,” she told CNN in an email.

‘From bad to worse’

A federal judge on Thursday ruled that the Trump administration needed to fully pay Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for more than 40 million Americans this month, rather than the partial payments the administration had proposed.

“The evidence shows that people will go hungry, food pantries will be overburdened and needless suffering will occur. That’s what irreparable harm here means. Last weekend, SNAP benefits lapsed for the first time in our nation’s history. This is a problem that could have and should have been avoided,” US District Judge John McConnell said during Thursday’s hearing in Rhode Island.

The US Department of Agriculture then announced Friday it was working to fully fund food stamp benefits for November to comply with a federal court order, and that the process should be completed later in the day. Several states quickly pounced on the news, saying the money should start flowing to recipients in the coming days.

But later Friday, the Supreme Court temporarily paused the lower court order requiring full payment of benefits, injecting more uncertainty into whether food stamp recipients would see their full allotments anytime soon.

Zacherie Martin, 35, of Bremerton, Washington, said he and his girlfriend are out of work and rely on food stamps in part because they can never predict whether local food banks will have food available.

He said he’s been following news about the government shutdown “very closely,” and is struggling to plan, given the uncertainty around whether and what amount of SNAP benefits he’ll receive.

“I’m worried if I’m going to even be able to eat at all before Thanksgiving — or at all tomorrow night, or tonight, even,” Martin said.

Laura Bowles, a pregnant mother of five children, ages 4 to 13, in West Virginia, is trying to make her husband’s paycheck from Walmart stretch to feed their family and pay the bills this month. She told CNN earlier this week that her growing family has already made some tough choices this month after their SNAP benefits didn’t replenish on the first.

“My kids eat a lot. And groceries are already so expensive these days. It was already hard,” Bowles said. “It’s a struggle out here. I am pregnant again, and that wasn’t part of the plan — but it was God’s plan. I guess people struggle everywhere, but it’s hard here in West Virginia. It just feels extra hard here. And this just made things go from bad to worse. Way worse.”

Cuts or delays in SNAP benefits could also hurt the stores that sell to its recipients — particularly smaller grocers.

SNAP accounted for $124 billion in sales at 262,000 retailers in 2023 — half of which were at superstores such as Walmart. A quarter of sales went to supermarkets.

Large chains such as Walmart, Kroger, and Dollar General can absorb cuts to SNAP. It’s the small, independent grocers that depend on SNAP for up to half of their sales to sustain razor-thin profit margins that are most vulnerable to cuts, economists and grocers say.

Progressive think tank Center for American Progress in May identified 27,000 retailers — mostly in rural areas with large shares of SNAP recipients — likeliest to shoulder the brunt of cuts to SNAP. In dozens of small counties and tribal areas, more than 30% or 40% of the population receives SNAP benefits.

Federal workers under mounting pressure

Though many of them have remained on the job, most federal workers haven’t been paid during the shutdown. Some of them told CNN that bills are now piling up.

Lisa Morales, a nurse who works at a military base in El Paso, Texas, said she was able to make rent for October and November, but can’t go any further without pay. She said she’s not sure how she’s going to afford her car and insurance payments, gas, groceries, dog food and utilities this month without a paycheck. She said her landlord won’t work with her, and she doesn’t know where she’ll live if the shutdown doesn’t end soon.

“We are not eligible for unemployment, because we are still reporting to work, so that disqualifies us for benefits,” she said. “I will have to look for another job this month if the government continues to be shutdown.”

At a recent job fair in McLean, Virginia, hosted by RockITGov, furloughed federal workers offered sobering accounts of what they face. They asked not to be named in order to speak candidly.

“I haven’t gotten a paycheck. I’m trying to find a way to support my family. I have a young family,” one federal worker said. “We’re trying to figure out next steps, what our finances look like.”

A nine-year Pentagon employee who took the deferred resignation offer in May said she was supposed to be paid through December, but hasn’t received a paycheck since early October because of the shutdown. She said she’s planning to skip holiday travel and gift-giving.

“I’m concerned about my car payments. I’ll probably call the bank and see if I can skip a car payment,” she said. “I may have to take money from my retirement if my savings run out.”

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CNN’s Dianne Gallagher, Brian Todd, Devan Cole, Nathaniel Meyersohn, Kit Maher, Tami Luhby, Ted Barrett, Ellis Kim, Sarah Ferris, Aaron Cooper and Alisha Ebrahimji contributed to this report.