by Donald Wood
Last updated: 2:30 PM ET, Fri January 25, 2019
United States President Donald Trump announced that an agreement was reached Friday to end the country's longest partial federal government shutdown temporarily.
During a press conference at the White House, President Trump said he would sign a three-week, stop-gap spending deal, which will bring the estimated 800,000 federal employees back to work with pay and help alleviate the issues caused by the closure in the travel industry.
It also includes arrangements for negotiations on border security and ensures federal government employees would receive all of their back pay as soon as possible.
The deal between both parties in Washington D.C. needed to be struck to end the growing Transportation Security Administration security lines caused by employees calling in sick.
In addition, air traffic controllers were also dealing with staff shortages that resulted in airports across the Northeast like LaGuardia Airport experiencing significant delays.
"The U.S. travel community thanks the president and congressional leaders for reaching an agreement that hopefully averts further disruption to air transportation, which undoubtedly would have begun to generate downstream economic damage throughout the country," U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow said in a statement.
"Likewise, the reopening of national parks, plus the resumption of government travel and government-related business travel, will halt the estimated $100 million in daily cost the loss of those activities has been imposing on the economy," Dow continued.
The government agreement will also result in the reopening of national parks, museums and federally funded institutions.
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