The Federal Aviation Administration says it's suspended all employee furloughs and says air traffic facilities will begin returning to regular staffing levels over the next 24 hours.

The FAA says in a statement that the air traffic system will resume normal operations by Sunday evening.

The announcement comes a day after Congress passed legislation to allow the agency to withdraw the furloughs _ fallout from the $85 billion in automatic-across-the-board spending cuts this spring.

They started to hit air traffic controllers this past week, causing flight delays that left thousands of travelers frustrated and furious.

Republicans accused the Obama administration of forcing the furloughs to raise public pressure on Congress to roll back the budget cuts. The White House complains the FAA fix left the rest of the cuts intact.