U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean
Duffy warned that flight delays and cancellations may ramp up across the
country as staffing shortages continue to strain air traffic control operations
amid the ongoing government shutdown.
Speaking with ABC
News’ "This Week" co-anchor Martha Raddatz during a recent ground
stop at Newark Liberty International Airport, Duffy said the Department of
Transportation isn’t taking any chances when it comes to passenger safety. “We
will delay, we will cancel, any kind of flight across the national airspace to
make sure people are safe,” he said.
The Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) reports that nearly half of all major air traffic control
facilities are currently facing staffing shortages. Controllers, who are classified
as essential workers, are still required to work without pay during the
shutdown — a situation that’s beginning to take its toll.
“There is a level of risk that
gets injected into the system when we have a controller that's doing two jobs
instead of one,” Duffy said, pointing out the added pressure that’s now falling
on already overworked personnel.
"If the
government doesn't open in the next week or two, we'll look back as [if] these
were the good days, not the bad days," he cautioned.
When asked whether the Trump
administration might consider using alternative funding methods to ensure that
air traffic controllers get paid, Duffy stated that the Trump administration is
“pulling in whatever dollars we can.”
But, he added, there are limits to
what can be done without a functioning budget. “When you don’t fund the
government,” he explained, “when you say there’s no dollars available, it
becomes really challenging to find dollars to pay the different components of
really critical workforces that keep our country moving forward.”
Despite growing criticism of the
shutdown’s impact, Duffy defended President Donald Trump’s hardline stance in
budget negotiations. When pressed about whether Trump should be doing more to
bring both sides together — a position he once supported in a 2011 interview —
Duffy pushed back. Rather than answering the question, he resorted to blaming
Democrats.
“Here’s the problem. Donald Trump
has nothing to negotiate with,” he said. “We passed a clean funding bill.
Right? So, what do you negotiate with when you — again, money in September,
same as October. Democrats are trying to use this as leverage.”
For now, the bottom line for
travelers is to stay informed, plan ahead and expect more potential flight disruptions
until the federal stalemate is finally resolved.
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