Florida Parish News

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) spoke in Washington, D.C., alongside Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, and House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Sam Graves (R-Mo.). The group addressed concerns about the ongoing government shutdown and its impact on air traffic controllers.

Scalise emphasized the challenges faced by the 13,000 air traffic controllers currently working without pay. He said, “I appreciate the job that our chairman of the Transportation Committee is doing. I really appreciate the job that our Secretary of Transportation, Secretary Duffy, has been doing, and especially want to thank those air traffic controllers who are showing up to work – work that even in normal times is an incredibly stressful job, as you can imagine, at any airport in America, but especially the busy ones. You might have dozens of flights coming in and out every single hour. Their job is to manage those flights so that everybody on those planes lands or takes off safely and gets to their destination safely. That's their job. That's their priority. It's their passion.

“Yet when you add to that, again, in normal times, an incredibly stressful job, when you add to that, the uncertainty of whether or not they're even going to get paid, while they still have the obligations of paying their house note, their rent, their car note, putting food on the table, adding that extra level of stress to an already stressful job is really straining the system. As Secretary Duffy talked about, some have taken on second jobs, jobs that take them away from their current job. It's led to flight delays. It's led to real hardships for American families. As we're approaching Thanksgiving in just a couple of weeks, imagine you're planning your Thanksgiving vacation to go see your family somewhere else, maybe a kid returning from college to go see their family for the first time in a few months and you don't know if the flight is going to be scheduled, if the flight is going to be on time, if you're going to be able to make it home. This is unnecessary.”

Scalise criticized Democratic leaders for what he described as using federal workers as leverage during negotiations over reopening government operations: “They're starting to say publicly what we've said out here, what they've been saying privately, is they're scared to death of their far-left radical base. That's why the Democrats didn't. It has nothing to do with policy differences. That's what we can negotiate when the government's open, and everybody knows that. Why are they doing it? Here we go. You heard the Speaker talk about it, but you had the House Minority Whip,' Shutdowns are terrible, of course. There will be families that are going to suffer,but it is one of the few leverage times we have.' Leverage.Yeah,sure.They're okay with people suffering,but boy ,does it give them leverage.For what,to appease their radical base,to show their radical base they're fighting Donald Trump? So they've made the calculation it's okay to cause suffering to families.Schumer ,of course:'Every day gets better for us.' Who's us? It sure isn't the American people.It sure isn't those air traffic controllers who are working six highly stressful days managing their air traffic control system ,while then they leave that job to go drive for Uber or for DoorDash .That's not a better day for them.But boy ,Chuck Schumer is happy.Bernie Sanders: ‘You reopen the government,and we lose our leverage .That's what this whole shutdown is about.' That's Bernie.Leverage.

“You hear it over and over again.The American people ,especially federal workers ,are considered by Democrats to be leveraged,to be pawns in their game.Senator Coons,'The point of this shutdown is not just suffering for suffering's sake,butto make a point .' What point ?A pointthatyou can cause sufferingon other people ,so you can get leverage toget back home to Los Angeles or San Francisco or New York Cityand showthe socialists :Look at me ,I've made Donald Trumphave tog oand move some money aroundto figure outa way topayfederal employees ,I'm creating chaosin Washington .That's whatthey want todo .That'stheir leverage ,so theycan get some paton the backfrom socialistsand Marxistswho want chaosin America .It's disgraceful,and everybodyknowsit .But theydon't care.They don't carebecauseas long asthey're appeasingtheir radical base ,that'swhattheir leverageis allabout .TheAmerican peopleto Democratsare considered pawnsfor leverageto goand makethe far-leftradical baselook likethey're fightingDonald Trump.”

He also cited comments from Nick Daniels of the Air Traffic Controllers Association regarding financial hardship: “Right now ,13 ,000air trafficcontrollersare workingwithoutpay.Thirteen thousand.Someofourairtrafficcontrollerswho worksixdaysa week ,or you've heardit ,drivingUber ,doingalltheseotherthings.NickDaniels,the PresidentoftheAirTrafficControllersAssociation ,said ,'To thinkthatsomehowwecan livewith,you'llgetpaideventually.Thatdoesn'tpaythecontrollers.Thatdoesn'tpaythemortgage.Thatdoesn'tpaygas.Thatdoesn'tpaythefoodbill.'That'stheburden .That'stheburdenthose13 ,000airtrafficcontrollerswhosejobeverydayistokeepussafewhenweflyonairplanesis .Why dotheyhavethatextrastress ?Whydotheyhavethatextraburden sothatSenateDemocratscanfeellikethey'vegotleverageoverwho,overtowhat,towhatend ?Thisismadness.Thereisnoendforthem.Theyjustthinkthisissomegame,andtheAmericanpeoplearepawnsinthatgame.Itsgottoend.”

Steve Scalise represents Louisiana’s 1st district in Congress after succeeding Bobby Jindal in 2008 and has served continuously since then https://scalise.house.gov/about. Before joining Congress he served in both chambers of Louisiana’s state legislature.

Scalise was born in New Orleans in 1965 and resides in Jefferson; he earned his BS degree from Louisiana State University.