SHUTDOWN TURBULENCE
TSA agents at Denver International Airport continue to work without pay after 24 days of the partial government shutdown on Monday in Denver. Colorado Democrats held a news conference at the airport Monday in support of ending the record-setting shutdown.
Coloradans could be waiting in longer lines for fewer flights in and out of Denver International Airport if the federal shutdown drags on.
That’s because staff shortages could develop as air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration screeners — federal employees who are currently working without paychecks — opt to retire or seek other jobs, said Josh Waggener, president of Denver’s National Air Traffic Controllers Association.
“We were already at a 30year low for air traffic controllers before the shutdown,” Waggener said at a Monday morning press conference at DIA organized by the Democratic members of Colorado’s congressional delegation.
“And 20 percent are eligible to retire,” he said. “I’d consider retiring if I were eligible.”
Those who can’t retire are looking at other ways to make money, like working at a friend’s bar or weekends at a retail store. It’s not ideal, Waggener said. “But we have people who are taking out loans to pay their bills.”
The shutdown of the federal government, now entering its fourth week, is the longest in U.S. history, with no indications it will end soon.
The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment has received 1,834 shutdown-related unemployment claims since it began Dec. 22, the agency said Monday. That’s about 20 percent of all claims received.
Friday was the first day that about 800,000 federal workers nationwide — including 15,000 in Colorado — didn’t receive paychecks, and Waggener said he thinks it will reach a crisis point for the majority of his members if they miss another one.
DIA hasn’t closed any security checkpoints, but George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston closed one Sunday because of shutdown-related staffing shortages. And passengers at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta missed flights Monday because of long security lines, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Other federal employees also spoke at Monday’s news conference.
Sherrie Kinard, who works as a physical scientist for the Environmental Protection Agency, said she’ll start searching for a new job at the next missed paycheck. She has two children who are on the autism spectrum and one suffers from seizures.
“I’ve seriously started thinking about not working for the government because at this point it’s starting to become an unreliable employer,” Kinard said.
Finding a compromise that reopens the government has been elusive, but Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Arvada, and many of his Democratic colleagues are open to discussing different types of border security, the congressman said Monday as he stood in the main concourse overlooking the TSA screening area. That could include drones, increased patrol officers and, yes, even physical barriers.
Sen. Michael Bennet, DDenver, suggested reviving an immigration bill he worked on in 2013 that included $46 billion for border security as well as immigration reform.
The Republican members of Colorado’s federal delegation didn’t attend, but a spokesman for Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, said the senator thinks the 2013 bill by the so-called Gang of Eight, a bipartisan group of senators, would be a good place to start.
Gardner already voted for a continuing resolution that includes $1.6 billion for border security and he would vote for it again if it came up, spokesman Jerrod Dobkin said.
That’s a point Bennet seized on at DIA. He said several proposals likely have a veto-proof majority — meaning Congress could reopen the government even if the president refused to sign the bill.
However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has indicated he won’t allow shutdown-related legislation opposed by President Donald Trump to come up for a vote.
“It needs to be a proposal that stands a chance of clearing the House, Senate and president, otherwise it is nothing more than political posturing that will regrettably continue the partial government shutdown,” Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, said. “Unfortunately, so far, the speaker refuses to even talk about border security, thus prolonging the preventable and unnecessary government shutdown.” Denver Post reporter Andrew Kenney contributed to this report.