Ben Voelkel

Communications Director

Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI)

202-228-0071

Good morning-

With the news today out of flights grounded at LaGuardia airport due to a lack of air traffic controllers, I wanted to make sure you remembered that New York’s own Senator Schumer blocked Sen. Johnson’ bill yesterday that would have paid air traffic controllers for their work during the shutdown. Sen. Johnson asked for unanimous consent to pass the Shutdown Fairness Act yesterday, which has 25 sponsors and would have paid the ‘excepted’ federal employees coming to work each day during the shutdown, including air traffic controllers. This is critical context given today’s air traffic issues.

Sen. Johnson had this to say today:

“Yesterday, Senator Schumer blocked my attempt to pass the Shutdown Fairness Act that would have paid all federal employees who are working during the shutdown, including the air traffic controllers. Senator Schumer could have prevented this, and he needs to explain why he thinks more than 400,000 federal workers should not be paid. I feel terrible for the air traffic controllers and the many other federal employees who have been working through the shutdown. It is unconscionable that we make people work without pay.”

Print Friendly, PDF & Email