Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned this week that parts of U.S. airspace may need to close if the government shutdown continues, citing a shortage of air traffic controllers.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the ongoing government shutdown has entered its sixth week, eclipsing the 35-day mark to officially become the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
This shutdown has affected many parts of the U.S., with Duffy explaining that air travel has been one of the hardest hit industries in the country due to the lack of air traffic controllers.
Duffy explained that many air traffic controllers had been able to remain working and miss a paycheck due to the shutdown, though he warned that next week could be the breaking point for many of these federal workers.
“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,’” he said, per PBS.
“So if you bring us to a week from today, Democrats, you will see mass chaos. You will see mass flight delays. You’ll 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 air traffic controllers.”
Federal Aviation Administration workers have already missed one paycheck that was scheduled to be sent out on October 28, but missing another paycheck, which is scheduled for next Tuesday, would not be realistic for these air traffic controllers.
Duffy further explained that losing more air traffic controllers would result in unsafe flying conditions, which is a risk he is not prepared to take throughout the country.
“We delay flights, we cancel or tell airlines to cancel flights if we don’t have enough controllers to effectively and safely manage our skies,” he said, per CNN.
“With this shutdown, it would be dishonest to say that more risk is not injected into the system. There is more risk in the system.”
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, many travelers have experienced increased wait times, delays, cancellations, and other disruptions when at airports, with some officials describing the issues in the most recent weekend as the “worst weekend” for staffing since the shutdown began.
These issues included 173 cancellations within, into, or outbound from the U.S., as well as another 244 cancellations on Saturday. Over 10,000 delays were reported during that same span.
Duffy said that federal workers are attempting to manage these issues, but there are major limitations on how these issues can be handled due to the government shutdown.
“I can’t just go find money and pay air traffic controllers,” he said, as reported by CNN.
“That’s not the way our constitution works and our government works.”
Currently, there is no official timeline for when the ongoing government shutdown will end. However, many expect the issues to persist for the foreseeable future due to the ongoing standoff between Democrats and Republicans.
The U.S. Senate recently voted to strike down a House-passed funding bill on Tuesday, marking the 14th time that lawmakers have voted against reopening the government since the shutdown began on October 1, per Politico.