Today, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined 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.) to discuss Democrats keeping the government shut down for political leverage with their radical base. Leader Scalise highlighted the negative impact the shutdown has had on the 13,000 air traffic controllers who are working without pay.
 
Excerpts from Leader Scalise's remarks:

On the Democrat shutdown adding undue stress on air traffic controllers:

“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.”

On Democrat leaders admitting they’re holding Americans hostage for political ‘leverage’:

“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, but to make a point.' What point? A point that you can cause suffering on other people, so you can get leverage to go back home to Los Angeles or San Francisco or New York City and show the socialists: Look at me, I've made Donald Trump have to go and move some money around to figure out a way to pay federal employees, I'm creating chaos in Washington. That's what they want to do. That's their leverage, so they can get some pat on the back from socialists and Marxists who want chaos in America. It's disgraceful, and everybody knows it. But they don't care. They don't care because as long as they're appeasing their radical base, that's what their leverage is all about. The American people to Democrats are considered pawns for leverage to go and make the far-left radical base look like they're fighting Donald Trump.”

On consequences for 13,000 air traffic controllers:

“Right now, 13,000 air traffic controllers are working without pay. Thirteen thousand. Some of our air traffic controllers who work six days a week, or you've heard it, driving Uber, doing all these other things. Nick Daniels, the President of the Air Traffic Controllers Association, said, 'To think that somehow we can live with, you'll get paid eventually. That doesn't pay the controllers. That doesn't pay the mortgage. That doesn't pay gas. That doesn't pay the food bill.' That's the burden. That's the burden those 13,000 air traffic controllers, whose job every day is to keep us safe when we fly on airplanes, is. Why do they have that extra stress? Why do they have that extra burden so that Senate Democrats can feel like they've got leverage over who, over what, to what end? This is madness. There is no end for them. They just think this is some game, and the American people are pawns in that game. It's got to end.”

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