A partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration that has put more than 70,000 construction employees out of a job nationwide has not affected Wisconsin workers, an FAA spokesman said Thursday.

The FAA was also forced to furlough about 4,000 of its own employees after the Federal government failed to reauthorize a bill Friday that would pay for the organization's grant program.

The employees -- who include engineers, project planners and administrative workers -- cannot return to work until members of Congress approve the measure.

"There are none of those folks in the state of Wisconsin," said Tony Molinaro, FAA spokesman. "The 4,000 that were furloughed get paid out of the same fund as the grant monies for construction projects, such as new runways, security fences -- these are folks doing airport planning and working on projects. "

Federal Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said on Thursday that work on more than 150 airport construction projects had been halted this week, affecting more than 70,000 workers.

"We're right smack dab in the middle of the construction season," LaHood said. "This is not the time to be laying off 70,000 people. "

The closest affected projects to Wisconsin were installations of two new control towers at airports in Kalamazoo, Mich., and Traverse City, Mich., and also work at the FAA's radar center in Kansas City, Mo., Molinaro said.

Construction of six new runways at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, the largest FAA construction project under way in the country, was not affected, Molinaro said.

"The O'Hare project continues forward because the city of Chicago did have money for that already," he said.

When the construction workers and FAA employees can actually get back to work is completely in the hands of the elected officials, Molinaro said.

"You'd have to ask your congressmen," he said. "If they can task some sort of reauthorization for these monies, we can get back to improving our facilities. "

The Associated Press also contributed to this report.