(Washington) The US Secretary of Transportation warned on Tuesday of the risks of “chaos” in air traffic, with partial closures of airspace if the budgetary paralysis continues next week.
“You will see widespread chaos,” Sean Duffy said. “You will see flights delayed en masse. You will see mass cancellations. And you may see us close certain parts of the airspace, simply because we won’t be able to manage it, for lack of air traffic controllers,” he said at a press conference in Philadelphia, questioning the responsibility of Democrats for the continuation of the budgetary paralysis or “shutdown”.
Since 1er October and the expiration of the federal state budget, Republican and Democratic senators are unable to agree to adopt a new text that would put an end to the crisis. After midnight on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, the record duration for this type of situation will be exceeded.
As a result of the shutdown, tens of thousands of air traffic controllers and security agents are working without pay, with both sides blaming each other for the situation.
“More than 13,000 air traffic controllers continue to work without being paid because of the Democrats,” said White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt. “I want to be clear to our incredible air traffic controllers across the country: President Trump and the Republicans want you to get your paycheck. »
Sick leave for sector employees and the lengthening of queues at airports had prompted elected officials to find a solution during the previous shutdown, during Donald Trump’s first term, which ended in 2019.
For the moment in Congress, the positions of the two camps are not moving.
Republicans are proposing an extension of the current budget, with the same spending levels, and Democrats are calling for an extension of subsidies for health insurance programs for low-income households.
In addition to public employees with missions deemed “essential” forced to work without pay, hundreds of thousands of civil servants have been placed on technical unemployment.
