The Nevada Independent: Nevadans in Congress frustrated as government shutdown drags into 2nd week

As the government shutdown stretches into its second week, Nevada lawmakers on both sides are growing more frustrated about the lack of progress on negotiations and are concerned about the impact on Nevadans. 

The Federal Aviation Administration included Las Vegas on a list of multiple U.S. cities that did not have enough air traffic controllers working on Tuesday. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said that more controllers have been calling out sick during the shutdown, when they are expected to work without pay. 

Mary Beth Sewald, president of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, told The Indy on Friday that “the shutdown is really negatively affecting Nevada’s economy,” emphasizing that withholding pay from thousands of federal workers was depressing economic activity. 

The first missed paycheck for active-duty military troops, of which there are 13,000 in Nevada, will arrive on Oct. 15. Most other federal workers will experience their first missed paycheck on Oct. 28, if the government is still shut down then.

Sewald also pointed to a report from the White House’s Council of Economic Advisors which found that each additional week of the shutdown would reduce Nevada’s gross state product by $140 million. She has spoken to small business owners who “are trying to be optimistic,” she said, “but are feeling the impacts of the uncertainty.”

In Washington, groups of lawmakers — huddled over dinners, on phone calls, and in private meetings — have tried to brainstorm ways out of the standoff. But there is no clear solution in sight, a lack of progress that members of the two parties blame on each other.

“Republicans could open the government today if they wanted to,” Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV) said at a health care event on Thursday. She emphasized they have majority control of the federal government.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has kept the House out of session, which Lee pointed to as a counterproductive move and proof of Johnson’s disinterest in ending the shutdown.

Republicans in turn have blamed Democrats, claiming the shutdown would never have arrived if Democrats had not been so stubborn on extending health care subsidies that are set to expire this year. Several federal agencies have posted overtly partisan messages on their websites blaming Democrats for the shutdown.