Transportation secretary on government shutdown’s impact on travel
(CBS, KYMA) - Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about the government shutdown impacting travel.
According to a CBS News poll, there is a real concern among Americans over the shutdown's effect on travel, prompting Brennan to ask Secretary Duffy if Americans should also have safety concerns, to which the secretary said:
"We work overtime to make sure the system is safe. And we will slow traffic down, you'll see delays, we'll have flights canceled to make sure the system is safe. But we have to be honest, when we have controllers, where we have shortages and towers and TRACONs doing two jobs, does it add more risk into the system? Sure, it does. But again, we're always managing that. Again, we don't want crashes, we want people to go safely, and so we will slow and stop traffic if we don't think we can manage it in a way that keeps people safe as they go from point A to point B."
During the interview, Brennan followed up by asking Duffy if the shutdown continues, when does it become an emergency in terms of passenger safety and the safety of people trying to get home for Thanksgiving, and Duffy said:
"Does it become a flight emergency, a safety issue? No, we will stop traffic. So we're not going to let that happen. I think the real consequence is, what kind of rolling delays do you have throughout the system, right? We've seen problems at LA, in Dallas, in D.C., Boston, Atlanta. And so I think it's only going to get worse. We have controllers who, some of them are new controllers. We have trainee controllers who are very helpful in the tower. They don't make a lot of money, and they're now confronted, they haven't had a paycheck for over a month. They're 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? They're making decisions. I've encouraged them all to come to work. I want them to come to work, but they're making life decisions that they shouldn't have to make. Let's open the government up. Let's pay these people, these young controllers. Margaret, it's really important, I think you've covered this, we don't have the best equipment in our towers and centers for air traffic control. But we have the safest airspace, we have the most efficient airspace because we have the best controllers in the world that work our skies and keep our people safe. They deserve a paycheck."
Later in the interview, Brennan and Duffy talked about reports of air traffic controllers only receiving partial pay last month as well as missing a paycheck altogether last week.
This led Brennan to ask Duffy if he would advise them to pick up part-time work elsewhere, and Duffy said:
"No, I'm clearly asking them, come to work. It is your job to come to work, and eventually you will be paid. But as I've traveled around the country and talked to air traffic controllers, they've told me that a lot of them can navigate missing one paycheck. None of them can manage missing two paychecks. And they're like every American family, everyone watching your show today as they think about their own finances, how many paychecks can they miss before it becomes real stress, real strife in their life? And so...next week, they're going to get a notice of what their next paycheck is going to be. And if the government doesn't open, the notice will be another big fat zero, and you're going to see more of them probably make the decisions of funding their families, putting food on their table, gas in their cars, versus coming into work. That's not what I want, but I'm a realist as well, Margaret, these are the decisions of life and survival that these controllers have to make. By the way, it's the technicians, also. We have old equipment. We have technicians that work in the towers that keep the equipment operational. They're not getting paid. I have train inspectors who are working to keep our trains running and running safely. They're working without pay. I have pipeline inspectors, same thing. Across the system. We have a number of people who are working without pay. We talk about the air traffic controllers, but I have thousands of employees who are showing up, doing the work and trying to keep this system safe for the American people all the while they don't get paid to do it."
To watch more of Brennan's interview with Duffy, click here.
