00:00I wanted to first address the fact that today marks the first day that air traffic controllers have a completely different focus today.
00:07Their first loss of pay.
00:09Air traffic controllers are out, moving over 45,000 flights today.
00:14Three million passengers, tons of cargo that keeps America moving.
00:18And their focus is now on when they'll receive pay again.
00:22We ask these controllers to do heroic efforts.
00:25They're unsung heroes.
00:26And yet, every single day that they show up to work now, they don't know when they'll get paid again until the shutdown's over.
00:34And so many can say, well, you'll get paid eventually.
00:37Well, that doesn't pay the bills today.
00:39They can't plan for it.
00:40And this introduces a new risk to aviation.
00:44Air traffic controllers are supposed to mitigate this.
00:46Air traffic controllers ensure that risk is out of the system so that those who fly and those who may serve, that they are safe.
00:53And this brings a risk where their focus is now on, when I get off my shift today, do I have to go and drive Uber tonight?
01:00So that way I can put gas in the car or food on the table for my family.
01:05They have to go out and now their focus is on, how do I defer a mortgage?
01:09So our message is clear.
01:12This job's hard enough five days a month.
01:13But they have to do it six days.
01:1610,800 circuit-wide controllers, where there should be 14,633.
01:21They work six days a week, ten hours a day, and they usually only have four days off in an entire month.
01:27Those are already heroic efforts.
01:29It's hard to believe that those that keep us safe and secure, whether it's the air traffic controllers, the TSA agents of security, safety inspectors, these folks are working without a paycheck.
01:40And they're expected to keep us safe and secure every day and the traveling and shipping public.
01:46This is great.
01:47We send lawmakers to D.C. to do their job.
01:51Plund the government, end the shutdown, and get folks back to work.
01:55Get these folks paid.
01:56Can you imagine doing such a stressful job and wondering if you're going to be able to make your next mortgage payment while you're doing that job?
02:04Or wondering what the next trip to the grocery store is going to look like for those folks that are missing a paycheck with a promise to get paid later?
02:11It's just not acceptable.
02:13End the shutdown now and begin to reopen the government, get these folks back paid and properly planned.
02:19I commend Secretary Duncan and Administrator Bedford the fact that he has been able to keep training and going for the first time ever in a government shutdown.
02:25But that's only going to last for approximately 17 more days.
02:28Every day that this drags on, we're not focused on progress.
02:31We're focused on how to get out of a shutdown.
02:33How long can air traffic controllers last?
02:35If somebody needs to figure out the end of this story, the American worker that lives paycheck to paycheck, which is almost every air traffic controller, cannot last without pay.
02:45It's that simple.
02:45And so stop waiting for us to be the ones that break in order to somehow fix the government.
Comments