Vance Warns Holiday Travel Could Be ‘Disaster’ If Government Does Not Reopen

Vice President JD Vance warned on Thursday that holiday travel will be a “disaster” if the government shutdown does not end.

“It could be a disaster, it really could be,” Vance said during a press conference at the White House on Oct. 30. “At that point, you’re talking about, [how] people have missed three paychecks, they’ve missed four paychecks. How many of them are not going to show up for work?” 

After hosting a closed-door roundtable with aviation leaders, Vance voiced his concerns about how the shutdown will impact the air travel industry.

The vice president predicted the wait-time on security lines would be four hours long and hinted that essential employees, who have been working without pay since the shutdown began Oct. 1, might leave their positions to get jobs that would allow them to pay their bills. Those staffers include air traffic controllers, transportation security officers, technicians, and pilots.  

“They are worried that the delays are going to reach a point where it makes it very, very hard for the American people to fly,” Vance said.  

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who attended the roundtable, echoed those concerns during the press conference and warned of “huge problems” with the aviation industry if the government does not reopen.

“Our traffic will be snarled. It will be a disaster in aviation.”  

Duffy suggested that October is generally a slower month for air travel, and the delays Americans have been experiencing are “minimal” compared to what could happen in November and December.

“As we go into November, travel picks up as people start to look at going to see their families [for Thanksgiving],” he said.  

“Kids come home from college and if you don’t have air traffic controllers who are being paid, they may want to stay on the job but they cannot. They’re going to have to go take a second job and you’re going to have mass issues throughout the airspace. People will not be able to go from one place to the other.”  

Over 13,000 air traffic controllers and thousands of transportation security officers have been working without pay since the shutdown started. They missed what would have been their first full paycheck this week.

The transportation secretary said none of the workers will be financially okay after two missed paychecks. 

“It’s not just the mortgage and the car payment, which is very real,” Duffy said. “But they’re buying food, they travel 30 to 45 minutes to the towers or the centers, so you have to buy gas. They have kids that want to play football or volleyball or tennis, and they can’t afford the very life expenses that they need those paychecks for.” 

“More challenges” will occur every day the shutdown goes on, he said.  

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, who attended the roundtable, urged lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to negotiate and pass a “clean” continuing resolution that would keep government priorities and spending at existing levels.

Senate Democrats have blocked the GOP’s stopgap bill to fund the government 13 times. They have said that extensions to expiring Obamacare subsidies should be included in any plan to reopen the government. The White House and Republicans have rejected this demand, saying that negotiations on health care reforms are separate from government funding measures.

Vance, Duffy, and Kirby all urged the lawmakers to reopen the government immediately.

The Epoch Times reached out to the White House for a full list of aviation industry leaders who attended Thursday’s roundtable.

The roundtable met minutes after a 90-minute ground delay was issued at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport due to staffing shortages, according to the FAA’s website.

Airports in Philadelphia, New York, and New Jersey faced ground delays unrelated to staffing on Thursday. Instead, John F. Kennedy International, along with other area airports, faced delays of over four hours due to bad weather.