Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Tuesday that the U.S. might be forced to close parts of its airspace if staffing shortages amid the government shutdown continue.
The shutdown, which is dragging into its second month, has meant that essential workers, including air traffic controllers, have been working without pay. This has led to a shortage of anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 controllers, according to Duffy.
"So if you bring us to a week from today, Democrats, you will see mass chaos," Duffy said during a news briefing with the SEPTA rail system. "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 the air traffic controllers."
Flight delays and cancellations have been piling up in airports across the U.S. following the government shutdown, which the White House blames on Democrats.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries has refuted accusations from the other end of the aisle, saying that his party "will not support a partisan Republican spending bill that continues to gut the healthcare of the American people."
"That’s been our position week after week after week, and it will continue to be our position because the Republican healthcare crisis is crushing the American people," Jeffries said in a Monday news release. "And now that we’re in the midst of open enrollment, tens of millions of Americans all across the country are realizing that their premiums, co-pays and deductibles are going to skyrocket, in some cases $1,000 to $2,000 more per month that working-class Americans are being asked to pay."
In Tuesday's briefing, Duffy said he does not know what the Democrats are asking for through the shutdown, adding that it is at the expense of the American people.
"Make no mistake, the longer this goes on, every day these hardworking Americans have bills they have to pay, they’re being 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 resources, money, to put food on their table, to put gas in their car?"
Duffy said the situation in U.S. airports will only get worse as the shutdown drags on. Addressing air travel safety, Duffy said flight delays and cancellations are ways to ensure safety.
"But with this shutdown, it would be dishonest to say that more risk is not injected into the system," he said. "There is more risk in the system."
In a statement, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said airports in Houston experienced "longer than normal delays in screening" due to staffing shortages over the weekend.
"While the vast majority of our nationwide operations remain minimally impacted by the government shutdown, occasional delays are to be expected," the TSA said in the statement. "The longer the shutdown goes on, the more severe the impact on our TSA workforce who have expenses they must pay for, making it harder to show up for work when not being paid."
On Tuesday afternoon, more than 1,800 flights traveling within, to, and out of the U.S. were delayed, and over 50 were canceled, according to FlightAware.com. Newark Liberty International Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport account for most of it, with over 150 delays and 14 cancellations between them. It is not immediately clear if all the delayed flights were due to staffing.
Arrivals at Arizona's Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport were delayed by almost an hour due to staffing issues on Tuesday morning, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The weekend saw the most difficult travel conditions yet, with more than 5,000 flights departing and arriving at U.S. airports delayed on Sunday alone.
