On the recordJanuary 11, 2019
Today, air traffic controllers in a regional facility in Farmington continue to work without pay, while support staff is furloughed. Adding insult to injury, in the last few hours, they received regularly scheduled earnings statements that read zero dollars and zero cents. Earlier this week, I met with them in Burnsville and again in Washington. I heard their stories. Joe, a new father with a baby born 10 weeks early still in the NICU, had his leave canceled because of the shutdown. Jeremy, a father of three, may have to take out credit card debt just to pay the bills. And Kelly, a trainee with student loan debt, doesn't know how she is going to make ends meet. Each of them, on behalf of communities and passengers they may never know, remains committed. It is time to end the shutdown and stop playing politics with people's lives. ____________________
