Bob Hope Airport will avoid the impact of $85 billion in automatic federal spending cuts that are slated for midnight Friday -- a move that officials warn will force a scale back in operations at airfields across the nation.
A last-minute huddle between President Obama and congressional leaders in the Oval Office Friday morning failed to produce a compromise to forestall the automatic spending cuts all sides say they want to avoid, the L.A. Times reported.
The spending cuts, known as sequestration, will impact the Federal Aviation Administration and the Transportation Security Administration, which have warned that they will be forced to scale down operations at airports.
In a statement, Marsha Catron, deputy press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, warned of increased wait times that could double at the nation’s largest airports.
“Lines and wait times will increase as reductions to overtime and the inability to backfill positions for attrition occur,” she said.
