Sean Duffy responded to a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question with a riddle when asked about the safety of flying amid the government shutdown.
The transportation secretary appeared on Sunday Morning Futures, and was asked by host Maria Bartiromo about the American economy’s air travel “chokepoint.“
”Is it even safe to fly right now, Secretary?” Bartiromo asked.
“That’s job number one right now, Maria,” Duffy replied. “Again, I need my controllers focused on the airspace not about the finances at home. They’ll tell me there is that seepage of how are they going to deal with those finances. My job is to keep the airspace safe.”
The former pro lumberjack added: “If I don’t feel like I have enough controllers—or enough controllers that are focused—we will slow down traffic, we will stop traffic.
“And that’s why you see the delays in the system. And the job number one is, again, get people to where they’re going safely.”
The shutdown is now 26 days in, and air traffic controllers are facing their first empty paycheck. Duffy painted a pretty bleak picture about the current conditions, which include distracted workers and people leaving the job. Earlier in the interview Bartiromo asked if there were a lot of TSA and transportation workers calling in sick since they aren’t getting paid.
Duffy explained that workers found out on “Thursday or Friday” that they “got a big, fat zero—no paycheck coming on Tuesday.”
“So I’ve been out talking to our air traffic controllers, and you can see the stress. These are people that oftentimes live paycheck to paycheck or one controller has a stay at home spouse. They’re concerned about gas in the car, childcare and mortgages. So I’m seeing the stress come for the controllers.”
Adding that some staff members had already started leaving in order to pick up paid jobs, he summarized: “We’re about 2,000 controllers short.”
Duffy made sure to turn the onus on the Democrats, after Congress’ repeated failure to pass an appropriations bill has caused such a long period of inactivity.
“And if it’s not on time, well, call the Democrats. Call Chuck Schumer if you’re frustrated. You have a staffing shortage, and your flight’s three hours delayed or your flight is canceled,” he said.
For any airborne complaints or concerns, Duffy repeated: “Call Chuck, call senate Democrats, because this is the reason why.”
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