Shutdown season: Fall traditions on ice as cancellations pile up

WASHINGTON — Leaves are changing color, there’s a slight chill in the air, pumpkin-flavored products are lining the shelves — and canceled events are now another seasonal arrival.

As the government shutdown reaches almost a full month, annual fall traditions are being called off or postponed, and the shutdown holiday blame game has begun, too, with the White House trying to put the onus for travel disruptions on Democrats as the holiday season approaches.

“If the Democrats continue to keep the government closed, we fear there will be significant flight delays, disruptions and cancellations in major airports across the country this holiday season,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a briefing Thursday. “If Democrats continue to shut down the government, they will also be shutting down American air travel.”

Air travel has been a tipping point during past shutdowns. When the government partially shut down from late December 2018 into January 2019, President Donald Trump announced a deal to reopen soon after some air traffic controllers did not show up to work, resulting in flights being briefly grounded in New York.

Last Thursday, Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters at his daily press conference that air travel delays during football season could be a pain point.

“We are rounding into a holiday season, and we’re in the middle of the height of the football season. This is peak travel time for the U.S. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are going to travel to football games, for example,” he said. “If the current trajectory continues, many Americans could miss watching their favorite teams and reconnecting with friends and family. So football fans, hey, if you’re stuck in the airport this weekend while your favorite team is about to kick off, you can blame the Democrats for that.”

Even within Congress, football is suffering at the hands of the shutdown. With the Congressional Football Game now postponed until the spring, organizers are hoping that the extra time will allow for more engagement with the charity event.

“Unfortunately, due to the government shutdown, we, and the organizers of the Congressional Football Game for Charity, have not been able to appropriately conduct the type of outreach necessary to maximize charitable contributions and attendance, including game promotion,” Reps. Tracey Mann, R-Kansas, and Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif. said in a joint statement.

The pair are co-captains for the game, where lawmakers and former NFL pros face off against Capitol Police officers.

That’s not the only disrupted event hitting close to home for members of Congress.

A Halloween dog parade hosted by North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis has also been lost to the funding lapse. The tradition, known as the “Bipawtisan Howl-o-ween Dog Parade,” usually takes place in the Hart Senate Office Building on Halloween, but Tillis told reporters last week that it was canceled, and his office circulated a graphic saying it was “shut down by the shutdown.”

At the Library of Congress, which is closed to the public until the government reopens, cancellations range from movie screenings to events with authors, to name a few, along with performances in its regular concert series. The library was scheduled to mark the 100th anniversary of the concerts this week with its annual Founder’s Day celebration, until the shutdown got in the way.

With the Smithsonian Institution also now closed, annual Halloween events like Boo at the Zoo and Night of the Living Zoo have been scrapped. So have other Smithsonian events, including a sleepover at the Natural History Museum. The Smithsonian lost an estimated 1 million visitors and an estimated $3.4 million in gross revenue from its gift shops, concessions and IMAX film screenings during the partial 35-day shutdown from late 2018 into early 2019, according to the American Alliance of Museums. In the October 2013 shutdown, that amount was $4 million.

Shutdown-related cancellations are being felt far beyond the Beltway, too. The Blue Angels, the Navy’s aerial demonstrations team, had to ax its yearly appearance at San Francisco’s Fleet Week, and Navy ship tours were also missing from the agenda. The Florida International Air Show, scheduled for Nov. 1-2, will likely suffer the same fate unless lawmakers in Congress reach a spending deal soon.

Meanwhile, Democrats have been focused on Nov. 1 as the key date of the season, with open enrollment set to begin on the government-run health insurance exchanges. “Tens of millions of Americans are going to wake up to the reality because of the open enrollment period beginning on Nov. 1 that their premiums, co-pays and deductibles are about to explode,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said at a news conference last week.

But so far one holiday tradition remains on track — this year’s U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree was cut down last week and will soon start its journey to D.C. from Nevada’s Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. The tree program is funded largely from private sponsors and donors. The tree, named Silver Belle, will travel through Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky and Maryland before reaching the Capitol’s west lawn.

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