An air traffic controller told lawmakers that he's been delivering food for DoorDash to make ends meet amid the ongoing government shutdown, which has paralyzed Washington since Oct. 1.
Jack Chris of Dallas told a panel of lawmakers on NewsNation's "Cuomo" Wednesday that he has worked for the Federal Aviation Administration for 16 years and has "been through the Obama shutdown and also the Trump shutdown."
"And my question is: Under the current political climate, do you think that this shutdown could actually be longer than the previous shutdowns due to the external pressures, political pressures that we're having effect right now?" he asked the bipartisan group, which included Reps. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa.; Jim Jordan, R-Ohio; and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and former Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va.
"I am actually driving DoorDash when I get off work just to kind of make sure I can pay for my daughter's tuition," Chris added.
Khanna was the first to respond, expressing sympathy for the air traffic controller's plight.
Thousands of federal employees are similarly struggling as they work through the shutdown without pay or have been furloughed or laid off.
"Thank you for being here," Khanna said. "Thank you for making clear this is not a game.
"I was talking to the mom of someone who served in the Army, and she didn't know — until the president figured out how to jigger the funds — whether she was going to be able to pay for her kids' groceries," the California Democrat continued.
Over the weekend, President Donald Trump ordered War Secretary Pete Hegseth to pay U.S. troops with redirected Pentagon funds.
Meanwhile, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said he understands that air traffic controllers are under pressure but has called on them to show up for work regardless of the challenges they're facing.
"We need more controllers, but we need the best and the brightest, the dedicated controllers.
"And if we have some on our staff that aren't dedicated like we need, we're going to let them go," he said on Fox Business.
Air traffic controllers are missing two days of pay in the check they received on Tuesday and will reportedly not receive any paycheck at all on Oct. 28 if the budget impasse is not resolved.
Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said Tuesday at Reagan Washington National Airport that the shutdown "introduces a whole new risk in the air traffic control system, when their focus is now moved from the safety and moving 45,000 planes, 3 million passengers, tons of cargo a day into, 'Do I have to get another job? Do I have to start driving Uber on the side?'"
Working in one of the government's most high-stakes environments, controllers fear getting caught in the middle between bickering partisans on Capitol Hill.
"We're used as the political pawn during the process," Daniels said.
"We are the rope in this tug-of-war game that we shouldn't be the rope. This has nothing to do with us."
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