House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) warned his members that they should start making their way back to Congress as soon as possible for a vote on the Senate-passed continuing resolution that will end the longest-ever federal government shutdown, given that air travel has become chaotic due to personnel shortages blamed on the impasse. 

"As of Sunday, nearly half of all domestic flights and U.S. flights were either canceled or delayed, and it's a very serious situation," Johnson said to reporters on Monday.

"So I'm saying that, by way of reminder, I'm stating the obvious, to all my colleagues, Republicans and Democrats in the House, you need to begin right now returning to the Hill. We have to do this as quickly as possible."

The Senate passed a continuing resolution on Sunday night after refusing to do so 14 other times in the 41 days of the shutdown.

Air travel devolving

Eight Democrats broke ranks with their party to join Republicans on the cloture vote, overcoming the one Republican vote against it by Sen. Rand Paul (KY).

Air travel was restricted 6% as of Tuesday amid the shutdown, since thousands of TSA and air traffic controllers were working without pay, and a significant number were calling in sick.

Some have had to work other jobs to make ends meet, which further exacerbated the already-existing shortage.

"The problem we have with air travel is that our air traffic controllers are overworked and unpaid, and many of them have called in sick. That's a very stressful job, and even more stressful, exponentially, when they're having trouble providing for their families. And so air travel has been grinding to a halt in many places," Johnson said on Monday.

The ripple effect has caused travel headaches for many, and it was set to get worse in the coming days.

The package

The Senate package guaranteed back pay for all furloughed workers and those who have worked without pay, and it gave 4,000 laid-off federal employees their jobs back.

What the package didn't do was restore ACA subsidies that were set to expire in December, which will cause health insurance costs to increase for many Americans.

Republicans signaled before the Senate vote that they would be open to considering a vote on the ACA subsidies after the shutdown ended, so there may yet be action on them before the increases take effect.

The House subsequently scheduled a vote for Wednesday at 4 p.m. to make the end of the shutdown official.

While nothing is guaranteed until the vote is held, it is widely expected that the House will vote to accept the CR and end the shutdown after 43 days.