US lawmakers are set to vote on a funding package to reopen the government Wednesday evening, ending the country’s longest-ever shutdown.
It could take days for agencies to fully resume operations, officials warned: Flight disruptions in particular could linger, but services should be back to normal by the Thanksgiving travel period. The shutdown’s conclusion, however, won’t lift a fog that’s settled over the country’s economists and policymakers, a Reuters columnist argued. Without government data, experts have resorted to metrics like Broadway show attendance to gauge economic health.
October inflation and jobs data might never be released, the White House said Wednesday, further complicating the decision of an already-torn Federal Reserve on whether to cut interest rates in December.