Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Sunday that President Trump “has done all he can” to minimize the pain of the current government shutdown on Americans.
“So, we have done all we can. President Trump has done all he can to minimize the pain of the shutdown on the American people. Again, you remember under Barack Obama’s shutdown, he was trying to gate off open-air monuments in Washington, D.C., and were shutting down parks, just walking paths,” Duffy told CBS News’s Margaret Brennan on Sunday.
“President Trump has tried to make it less painful on the American people. So, we’re looking for pots of money to pay essential workers, but there’s really strict rules around what money we can use and how we can use it,” he added.
The ongoing shutdown comes after months of rising tension between Democrats and Republicans amid the second Trump presidency and controversial actions Trump has taken.
On Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) pushed lawmakers to open the government back up amid major American airports dealing with flight delays and cancellations because of staffing shortages.
Transportation Security Administration agents and close to 13,000 air traffic controllers are among federal workers labeled as essential and have been working with no pay since the start of the shutdown.
“As we head into this weekend, a surge in callouts is straining staffing levels at multiple facilities, leading to widespread impacts across the [National Airspace System],” the FAA said on the social platform X.
“Currently, half of our Core 30 facilities are experiencing staffing shortages, and nearly 80 percent of air traffic controllers are absent at New York–area facilities,” the FAA added. “After 31 days without pay, air traffic controllers are under immense stress and fatigue.”