Travel industry layoffs begin as Congress fails to come up with new relief package
Airlines, hotels and other travel-related businesses are trying desperately to urge Congress to act on a new relief plan in the wake of mass layoffs.
The day the airline industry didn't want to see coming arrived Thursday, when 32,000 American Airlines and United Airlines employees face furloughs after lawmakers and the White House failed to agree on a broad pandemic relief package including more federal aid for airlines.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to try to work out a deal, to no avail. The House voted mostly along party lines late Thursday to approve a Democratic-backed $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package, which includes another $25 billion in support for airlines, but it was unlikely to be taken up by the Senate.
At the White House, Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany blamed the layoffs on Pelosi Thursday and urged Congress to present a separate bill to protect airline jobs so that action doesn't become stalled as part of talks on the overall relief measure.
