Democratic senator accuses Trump of playing politics with aviation safety during shutdown

Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth suggested during a hearing Wednesday that the Trump administration was playing politics with the aviation system during the shutdown to force an agreement to reopen the government.

Duckworth, of Illinois, zeroed in on why the Federal Aviation Administration and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy never shared the safety data they relied upon when they decided to order airlines to cut some of their flights at 40 busy airports near the end of the shutdown. She also questioned why President Donald Trump didn’t just find a way to pay air traffic controllers the way he did for the military, although the government relied on help from a private donor to pay soldiers.

“It fails to strengthen confidence in good government, and the American people are understandably suspicious of a DOT and FAA that does not show its work,” Duckworth said during the Commerce Committee’s aviation subcommittee hearing.

During the shutdown, Duffy said repeatedly that the FAA ordered airlines to cut flights because of concerning safety data that FAA experts recognized. He said the order was based on the increasing number of controllers calling out of work as they dealt with the financial pressures of working without a paycheck, along with some reports from pilots concerned about controllers’ responses and a number of runway incursions.

Duckworth got political during Wednesday’s hearing because she took offense to the way Republican leaders on the committee said when they announced it that it would “examine the toll Democrats’ government shutdown took on the air traffic control system, airline operations, and training.”

The White House said Duckworth was the one playing politics after her party repeatedly voted against reopening the government while Democrats tried to reach an agreement on health insurance subsidies.

“If Tammy Duckworth had a shred of integrity and honesty, she would be commending Secretary Duffy’s heroic efforts to keep the skies safe while she and fellow Democrats prioritized playing stupid political games,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said Wednesday.

Shutdown may hurt the effort to eliminate controller shortage

Although Duckworth led the hearing on a detour into the debate about health insurance subsidies, most of the discussion focused on worries that there could be lasting damage to efforts to eliminate the longstanding shortage of air traffic controllers and attract young people to the profession.

“How do you go into a high school and encourage someone who is about to graduate to get excited about aviation? Get excited about the industry when the headline every single day is you don’t get paid?” said former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who now leads the Airlines for America trade group.

Aviation industry backs paying controllers during shutdowns

That’s why the entire aviation industry, through the Modern Skies Coalition, is saying it hopes Congress can find a way to spare crucial workers at the FAA and other agencies the pain of working without pay during the next government shutdown because thousands of flights were delayed or canceled nationwide during this fall’s lapse in funding.

The airline trade group said more than 6 million travelers were affected by delays and cancellations.

Efforts to address the controller shortage and hire more FAA technicians and test pilots were set back by the shutdown because some people decided to leave the profession and the yearslong training process for these crucial FAA employees was interrupted. The government did find a way to keep the academy that trains air traffic controllers open. But Duffy said that some students and young controllers quit and the number of experienced controllers who decided to retire spiked.

Several bills that would make it possible for the FAA to pay its employees during a shutdown have been proposed since the last major shutdown in the first Trump administration, but none have passed because of concerns about costs. Lawmakers hope that the disruptions this fall might provide enough motivation to finally pass a measure like the bipartisan one introduced in the House Tuesday or one that Kansas Republican Sen. Jerry Moran, who led the hearing, proposed again before the shutdown.

Financial stress weighed on controllers

The president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association union, Nick Daniels, said the financial stress of going without pay for a prolonged period adds risks to the nation’s aviation system. Many controllers already work 10-hour shifts six days a week because the FAA is so short on staffing.

“Asking these dedicated, patriotic American workers to survive working full time for more than a month without pay is simply not sustainable,” Daniels said. “That situation creates substantial distractions for individuals who are already engaged in extremely stressful work.”

Shutdown delayed plane makers

Jim Viola, who leads the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, said he understands how disruptive shutdowns can be because he lived through them when he used to work at the FAA. He said this fall’s shutdown only added to the backlog of applications to get new designs and advancements of planes certified.

“The most significant impact of the 2025 government shutdown on manufacturers is that no new certification projects were allowed to start which impacted the pace of U.S. aerospace innovation and completely halted new business activities,” Viola said. “During the shutdown, the FAA could not accept or facilitate work on any new applications for design and production approvals.”