Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Sunday that airport delays are “going to get worse” as the government shutdown threatens to stretch into a fifth week and air traffic controllers were not paid this week.
“I think the real consequence is, what kind of rolling delays do you have throughout the system, right?” Duffy said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.” “We’ve seen problems at L.A., in Dallas, in D.C., Boston, Atlanta. And so I think it’s only going to get worse.”
Duffy said the federal government will “stop traffic” if it becomes a safety issue, adding, “We’re not going to let that happen.”
Duffy’s appearance comes as ground delays were reported at major airports on Sunday, including a four-hour ground delay at Newark Liberty Airport, one of the nation’s busiest transit hubs. There were staffing triggers reported at airports in Nashville, Tennessee; Jacksonville, Florida; Austin, Texas; Denver, Colorado; Northern California and Newark, New Jersey.
The airport chaos is just weeks ahead of some of the busiest travel days of the year around Thanksgiving.
As the government shutdown has stretched on for more than 30 days, air traffic controllers have gone without several paychecks, although they will get back pay when the shutdown ends. Duffy emphasized Sunday that air traffic controllers are being “confronted with a decision: do I put food on my kids’ table, do I put gas in the car, do I pay my rent or do I go to work and not get paid?”
However, Duffy ruled out the Trump administration finding a way to pay air traffic controllers, similar to how the active-duty military has been paid so far. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has warned active-duty military personnel won’t be paid on Nov. 15.
“So we’re looking for pots of money to pay essential workers, but there’s really strict rules around what money we can use and how we can use it, and we have to follow the law,” Duffy said about paying air traffic controllers. “And so we were able to fund a central air service, service to more rural communities. We’ve kept our academy up and running thus far. We don’t have a ton of time, a couple more weeks of that funding. But I don’t have the resources to do that, and the simple answer is, vote to open the government, negotiate your differences. “
While Duffy suggested on Oct. 9 that if air traffic controllers didn’t show up to work, they could be “let go,” he said on Sunday that he doesn’t plan on firing controllers.
“Again, when they’re making decisions to feed their families, I’m not going to fire air traffic controllers,” Duffy said. “I have, I have loved them and supported them as they’re trying to go through this process and it’s challenging for them. They need support, they need money, they need a paycheck. They don’t need to be fired.”
The Trump administration has continued to blame Democrats for the shutdown, but Democratic Sen. Mark Warner on Sunday suggested that ending the shutdown is “going to require the active intervention of the president.”
“The notion of at least sitting down to talk about health care, making sure that $6 billion that is set aside for SNAP benefits gets paid out so people don’t go hungry and we get the government reopened again,” Warner said in a separate appearance on “Face the Nation.” “The president of the United States has said when he was not president that it’s the responsibility of a president to end shutdowns. He has paid no attention to the shutdown. He’s stopped his many international trips; come sit down and let’s get this resolved.”
A CBS News poll released Sunday found that Americans are increasingly voicing concern about the shutdown’s impact on the U.S. economy, as a big majority feel Congress isn’t even working to try to end it. There’s also increased worry from people over being personally affected, particularly among those with lower incomes.
