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In a shocking announcement on Tuesday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced that his agency may begin closing sections of U.S. airspace due to the ongoing government shutdown, which has left air traffic controllers with dwindling pay stubs that are set to zero out this week.
“This Thursday, they’ll get an email saying that their pay stub is a big, fat zero,” he said. “Many of the controllers said, ‘A lot of us can navigate missing one paycheck. Not everybody, but a lot of us can. NONE of us can manage missing two paychecks.’”
Duffy continued, “So, if you bring us to a week from today, Democrats, you will see mass chaos, you will see mass flight delays, you will see mass cancellations, and you may see us close certain parts of the airspace because we just cannot manage it, because we don’t have the air traffic controllers.”
This ominous prediction comes on the cusp of a busy holiday season for Americans, with Thanksgiving just a few weeks away. It also comes amid the 35th day of the federal shutdown perpetuated by Senate Democrats who refuse to vote for a clean continuing resolution that would reopen the U.S. government.
So far, Democrats have refused to vote for the CR at least 13 times.
On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that on Sunday, over 5,000 flights traveling to and from U.S. airports were delayed, and that since the shutdown began in October, “four times as many staffing shortages have been reported at traffic control facilities compared to last year.”
Currently, she said more than 13,000 air traffic controllers are working without pay.
The situation has become so dire that America’s biggest labor unions – like Teamsters, AFGE (the largest union of federal workers), and multiple pilots’ unions – have joined together to publicly pressure Democrats to vote for the CR.
Additionally, almost 500 companies and groups in the travel industry have signed a public letter asking Congress to pass a clean continuing resolution as soon as possible to avoid mass chaos during the holiday season.
