Sean Duffy warns other airlines could be closed if the government is not reopened

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned Tuesday that disruptions at US airports will increase as the government shutdown continues, using some of the most alarming language yet about the state of air travel. AIR traffic controllers and TSA Agents are currently working without pay, causing an uptick in workers calling in sick as they scramble to get their jobs to pay their jobs to pay their jobs to pay their jobs to pay their jobs to pay their jobs.

Duffy noted that air traffic controllers will receive an email stub on Thursday indicating that next week’s payments will be “zero fat.”

“Many of the controllers say that a lot of us can’t navigate with one loss.

Duffy pointed the blame at elected Democrats, who said they won’t provide the votes needed to open the government until Republicans commit to defunding health care. Americans are set to see their health insurance premiums rise in 2026 after Republicans failed to extend ObamaCare’s Covid-Era tax credits in July.

“So if you bring us a week from today, Democrats, you’re going to see a lot of chaos,” Duffy said. “You’re going to see a lot of flight delays. You’re going to see a lot of cancellations. And you’re going to see us close some parts of the airSpace because we can’t manage it because we don’t have air traffic controllers.”

All eyes are currently on air traffic control, because the one-month mark appeared to be the tipping point for the 2019 government shutdown, which lasted 35 days. The current shutdown began in Oct. Duffy suggested that fewer air traffic controllers called in sick during the shutdown compared to 2019 but warned it would be worse.

“Those hard-working Americans have bills to pay, and they’re forced to make decisions and choices,” Duffy said. “Do they go to work as an air traffic controller or do they have to find a different job to get services, money to put food on their table to put gas in their car? And as each day goes by, I’m not better.”

Duffy’s warnings became more frequent each day. And travelers see it with their own eyes at the airport. More than 5,000 flights traveling to and from US airports were delayed on Sunday alone, according to NBC News, and the largest airport in Texas – Housen’s Bush Intercontinental – saw significant delays on Monday.

Duffy also talked about the lasting damage a prolonged shutdown would have on people’s willingness to consider air traffic control. There was already a shortage of between 2,000-3,000 traffic controllers before the closure, according to Duffy.

“Do they want to go into a job where they can be shut down and can’t get paid? That’s affected our pipeline,” Duffy said.

It is not clear who can click first to end the shutdown. The Republicans refused to come to the table and the Democrats did not sign the desire to wrap without real agreements on health care. But reporting from axios-focused political news outlets has been giving behind-the-scenes hints in recent days that things could soon change.

Centrist Democrats and Republicans in the House are reportedly proposing a plan that would extend health tax credits for two years while tightening crackdown laws, according to axios. And the senior leader of the Senate John Tune, a Republican from South Dakota, told axios, “we’re getting closer to the ramp.”

But the whole conversation could very much depend on whatever president Donald Trump decides to do on a given day. The Trump Administration said in a court filing Monday that it will pay about half of the USDA Contingency Funds set aside for Snap’s emergency benefits. But Trump wrote a new social truth on Tuesday that contradicted the state’s lawyers, who said they would not actually pay benefits to the states.

“The benefits of Snap, increased by billions and billions of dollars (many fools!) During the bad time of Joe Biden in office (because the far-right Democrats will accept the government, which will be given only when they can easily do it,” and not before! Thank you for paying attention to this issue, “Trump wrote.

Local communities across the country are hosting government workers who are working without pay or under arrest. And while the 2019 law requires furloughed workers to be paid after the shutdown ends, the Washington Report reports Tuesday that the Trump administration has armed furloughed workers will not be paid after all.

Authorities in the office of management and budget spread a memo in October in which those employees should not have been paid and the postal notes no longer include verification that will appear later. Such moves are clearly likely to attract legal challenges, but those can take a long time and depend on the courts that have raised the law.