Good morning everyone. Thank you for coming over. I appreciate you coming over. Obviously we are here to urge houseca republicans to settle their differences among themselves. Come to their senses and honor the deal they made with President Biden earlier this year. If they fail to uphold this basic responsibility then they will trigger a completely avoidable shutdown. If that happens about 84 hours from now the u. S. Federal government will be forced to close threatening our economy our National Security, and leaving americans in every state in territory less safe for and what to make clear the impact i want to make clear the impact of a potential republican shut down so there is no confusion about what is at stake for transportation, for working families and for all americans. Just as importantly i want to talk about what is at stake for all of us those who are holding this funding hostage gets their way and their demands for severe cuts to important federal functions including transportation safety. But first i just want to identify itng with the millionsf americans looking at whats happening in washington right now in disbelief. Funding the u. S. Government is a basic responsibility of congress. It is not normal in the most powerful country in the world fringe Congressional Republicans from time to time are able to put the entire country at risk of simply shutting down the government. In particular i am concerned about the casual disregard that is beinghe shown for the people will be impacted the most. Any House Republican comfortable shutting down the government should explain themselves directly to the soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines whose paychecks will stop after saturday. They should explain themselves directly to all of thenp nonpartisan level servants who makene sure planes that landed safely, who inspect trucks and railroads and pipelines to preventpr disasters who will hae to go without pay. I am also concerned by the context of the cuts they House Republicans are trying to force it. Theres a lot of attention going to the possible shutdown. In my view not enough attention going to the objective of that threatened shutdown which is to extract cuts the overwhelming majority of americans reject. So lets take a minute to review how we got here for this summer President BidenSpeaker Mccarthy shook hands and made a bipartisan deal to keep this country running. Two thirds of House Republicans voted for that deal. I should note that deal was tougher all sides frankly is tough with this department that meant cutting back on funding for good Infrastructure Projects that we believe in, fixing roads, bridges and airports we accepted it because that was the deal. Now a fringe group of House Republicans is refusing to honor that deal putting thems at oddso with the majority of their own party as well as the majority of the american people. They are holding key functions of our government hostage to try to get extreme cuts to things like childcare and meals on wheels that so Many Americans count on every day. Let me emphasize what a shutdown would mean for transportation. After everything we have been through. After all the disruptions to air travel especially ones we saw it last year we have finally seen cancellations and delays get back down to normal levels we have seen cancellations go to a level that is lower than it was before the pandemic. We have done that pushing airlines to do better but we have expanded passenger rights with accelerated improvements to faas on staffing and technology. But a shutdown would stop all that progress. Ou it would mean we immediately have to stop training new air Traffic Controllers and furlough another 1000 controllers who would already in the training pipeline. I want to emphasize the complexity of the hiring and training process even the shutdown lasting a fews days could mean we will not hit our staffing and hiring targets next year. Meanwhile it would deprive air Traffic Controllerso who are still working of their paychecks. I want you to imagine the pressure a controller is already underit every time they take thr position at work. And then imagine the added stress of coming to that job from a household with a family who could no longer count on the paycheck. That is the consequence of a shutdown. Butt also whether there is a shutdown or not i want to go through some things that would happen if House Republicans get their way on cuts. To observe the cut they propose we would have to totally freeze faa hiring and operations of the facilities. Would be setback in modernizing systems that lead to a nation wide havoc with a 90 minute outage earlier this year. What is especially galling as we see some of the same elected officials who have responded even to weather delays by blaming the administration written out turning around and demanding that we cut resources for air Traffic Control. Thats air travel operations. Then have rulemaking and grants. We have been advancing some the strongest customer protections for Airline Passengers and generations. Our office of aviation Consumer Protection help passengers get billions of dollars in refunds for canceled flights. We are developing compensated for it long delays we are developing rules to make family seating free sue never have to pay to sit next to your kid. We are enforcing passenger rights for a shutdown stop that work in its tracks. Not to mention work around the Department Like helping emergency First Responders dealing with hazardousde materis and a work that goes on to strengthen real safety regulations. Then there is the date today of after the Norfolk Southern derailment earlier this year leaders on both side of thehe Island Congress rightly came together to start a process to help make our railroads safer. We are still looking for congress to follow through and pass the real weight safety act. We are waiting for congress your own continued work under current authorities. But again a republican shutdown dowould stop our work on new safety rules some of these same people who rush to get in front of the camera during the east impala seen the real aftermath are demanding extreme cuts to rearward safety inspections. Their proposal would cut 4000 safety inspections next year alone. Meaning 11000 miles of Railroad Track would not get inspected compared to the current levels. I do not understand how anyone could claim to be serious about Railroad Safety and then turn around and defend our inspectors. And that is just transportation republican shutdown would affect everything from National Security and Law Enforcement to food safety and disaster relief. And again those House Republicans who created this hostage situation have made clear their goal is to force extreme permanent cuts to a lot of the same programs. The kinds ofof programs and millions of working families count on every day. That enclosed nutrition assistance. There are 7 million women and children nationwide who rely on federal nutritionl assistance half the babies born of thisca country under a republican government shutdown. Women and children would be potentially turned away at the grocery store. To be clear at the recent some house or republicans are threatening to shut down the government in the first g places because they want to make permanent cuts that program and others like it. The president by contrast is fighting to expandry every eligible mother come expecting mother and child and get the food they need. When it comes to our Service Members 1. 3 million activeduty troops who be forced to work without pay until the government is back up and running. Hundreds of thousands of their civilian college of the department of defense to be c furloughed. Scheduled to drill will be sent home. There drill time and pay is unrecoverable. Something iem experience as a reservist during a previous shutdown. All of this undermines her National Security in very real ways. It is ironic to say the least some house members who claim to support our military are actively threatening to make our Service Numbers work without pay. Then under the cuts have been proposed some of the numbers are 60000 seniors will lose access to Nutrition Services like meals on wheels. 65000 could lose access to childcare. Your educators with 26 million students. Veterans will lose their housing vouchers. 6000 more pounds of methamphetamine and cocaine could be led into the country. I dont fighting the present has requested for things like rebuilding american committees hit by climateco disasters, and helping ukrainians defend themselves against russian invasion. My point is theres no good time for a government shutdown. This is a particular bad time for government shutdown. Especially when it comes to transportation. The consequences would be disruptive and dangerous so what the longterm consequences of paying the ransom to avoid savagege cuts to safety infrastructure and other priorities. President biden keeps his word and the deal he struck with Speaker Mccarthy. To the house of representatives to not play political games to keep up and running but for the people they serve ill be happy to take a few questions. [inaudible] [inaudible] this is a dynamic industry. Really it relies on certainty. Especially in the context of some of the rulemakings. Its really complex and nuanced across the different parts of the grant work. The good news is a lot of what we are doing was advancedle appropriated parade that would continue. Even that work could get gummed up. Theyre not working the way they should in the context of a shutdown. Rulemaking is a good example we can get more specifics across different parts of the agency. A lot of the rulemaking activity would be stopped needs that certainty for all the changes going on. [inaudible] they will be safe given all the furloughs and the additional pressure on the air travelff system. Cracks are air Traffic Controllers and safety personnel are going to keep going in and doing their job to the extent they are allowed to the context of a shutdown. Theyre doing it under added stress thats uncalled for just like Service Members and uniform do. C its really does not help with the safety critical job to come to work with the stress of not getting paid. I would add that each passing day it gets more difficult and more complicated at different p nparts of the agency that are coming in print that catches up to the rest of the system. That something we saw historically the last time there is a shutdown. Over time it took more and more of a toll on air Traffic Controllers on tsa officers who are also not getting paid. M of course we count on them every day to keep the system safe. Cracks hyatt, fox news channel. Redo you think a President Biden should sit down with Speaker Mccarthy in the next three days to try to negotiate this out and prevent a shutdown . And what with that conversation look like . We dont have to speculate. Yes its absolutely permit for the president speaker to sit down and negotiate a deal and they did. Earlier this year were all we are asking as a speaker to stick to the deal theyve already worked out. One more question could you elaborate. [inaudible] he Training Program will be cut. What does that mean m for the average person . Write down and then in the months and years to come . The context is this. We have obvious is seen a lot of disruptions to air traffic. Especially last year. Some of those are caused by weather. Some are caused by airlineir issues. But a factor can be the availability of air Traffic Control staff and could we have seen a gap thats opened up over many years between level of staffing we need and the level of staffing we have got. We finally have that headed in the right direction but we hired 1500 this year our budget calls for 1800 controllers to be hired next year. That cannot happen to forget rastopped in our tracks with training. So at the end of the day that means more shortages and more outages and that can contribute to cancellations and delays for the same with the it side these cuts go through. Maybe slower but many other faa technologies that have needed upgrades for a long time. You slow that down you are increasing the chance there will be some issue that leads to disruptions like cancellations and delays for passengers going about their travel. Greta wallace from cnn for the faa is going potentially without a reauthorization. How would that compound the impact of a shutdown and what would be some of the specific impacts food see w there . There really three things we are concerned about the consequence of the shutdown, their consequences of the cuts that some House Republicans are demanding as the price of avoiding a shutdown. Then there are the consequences of it lapsed reauthorization. That would have a number of negative impacts. Again a lot of people would not be able tonc effectively do ther jobs. We would not be able to collect revenue estimate glued spend revenue from the trust fund and some of that might never come back in. So its kind of like a tax holiday for airline charges that never come into improve airports and meet other critical needs. It is right alongside the other forms of disruption something we dont need right now we are urging they be a reauthorization or at the very least an extension to keep things operating. Thanks for doing this. In 2019 when the last significant shutdown occurred the faa had a layup thousands of aviation safety inspectors and engineers. About two weeks in we are called about 1700 safety officials. Are you at a different posture you have toav furlough safety officials . What discretion do you have at this point to handle a potential lengthy shutdown . Works teams are working to the final point about right now. While we continue to hope and expect House Republicans will come to terms with each other and then with everybodyr else o get the government we are preparing for any eventuality. Part of the people as you get these scenarios where people are furloughed first and then they are recalled which contributes to the people they have to go through. I have already been in sessions we started to the breakdowns of how that works. Some of it also depends on the situation as they unfold. I cannot say compared to last time we have become immune to that possibility. On the reauthorization deadline, i wanted to ask you mentioned to could be a tax holiday for airlines, passengers or i was the paying taxes when they buy an airlinene ticket. What would happen with that money . Could the airlines a pocket it or are there any way for it dot or congress to potentially claw that money back if we get into a situation over the weekend where the reauthorization lapses . Anecdotally ive heard of sinners were airlines and found a way to adjust accordingly. I guess it depends airline by airline paid the point that some of it might be unrecoverable absent some other act of congress. D this jams up the ability to make investments that we need to do. Every yesterday i was on the runway in denver were funding improvements but in terms of taxiways will help avoid incursions into approaches own it. And lighting thats going to be safer. These are breadandbutter things we need to get done. You add to that the need to continue progress on modernization. It showed us an hour and half ground to stop his havoc all day for the system. It becomes harder and harder to prevent them if you have a lapse and authorization not to mention the cuts have been talked about. If youve been in touch with any on the hill about the authorization specifically whether its decoupled from the shutdown . A situation we get a shutdown but we dont get a lapse for example . Are different sinners were talked about folks on the hill including some that would have some kind of extension and i believe the approach discussed last night had a different timeline for the extension in the cr. We are trying to be ready and will adapt to whatever Congress Throws our way but this is no way to run a ballclub. We should not beh, in the situation to begin with. If we are you want weeks into months our professionals will do whatever it takes. Getting this close down to the wire is a real challenge for us. In the last shutdown you saw absenteeism creep up the longer it went. Is that understandable at a point or is your expectation people have to bear the pain and keep coming to work as expected . Again our people arere pros. They came in and do whats required per they are also human beings. The pressure they are under grows and mounts each passing day that you are in the scenario. And so the anything thats even more certain than the harms of a shutdown is those harms will compound each passing day. Thank you. So, what if anything is a Biden Administration doing to prepare and minimize delays and cancellations at airports in case of shutdown . So, let me break it into the things we had underway in the things were trying to make sure happen. Part of it is really contributed icto what you see here which is the cancellation rates below the prepandemic levels this year. We have pressed airlines to run realistic schedules. That expectation continues. But the enforcement of that or anything else we can hold accountable to just get interrupted at the office of aviation Consumer Protection personnel are not able to come into work. Thats were looking at in a shutdown scenario. Theres not much we can do on rulemaking at least in that side of the house in the context of a shutdown. Again the controllers still commend the tsa personnel still come in. They will be under more and more strain each day this goes on. And even the accepted personnel those who are working on things will continue. Whether its controllers or other parts of the operation. Theyre part of a bigger ecosystem. Part of ante faa a part of it dt and federal government. The more you have pieces of its that are running the more its going to cause some kind of pickup to smoothly and efficiently get better based on the tools we have even as we hope and expect a shutdown will beed avoided. We cannot guarantee this progress will continue of a shutdown like that takes place it. Then again theres the training for credit want to emphasize even a few days or weeks could set us back well into next year in terms of what that does. Because what it takes to train and qualify as an air Traffic Controller. Estella could get qualified one day youre good to go to go work anywhere. You train for the job and had to train for the geographer youre going to be working. Not just experience but recent experience matters. We finally are in a place we have absorbed most of the ripple effects w in our training pipeline. Only to have a politically driven one potentially come along. The deep irony of this is some of the same people who rushed to try to make a partisan issue out of Airline Delays last year are behind the description of disruf potential disruption this year. [inaudible] bit furloughed to the federal Railroad Administration . I was one if you could speakak a little bit more how you could impact their operations if there is a shutdown . The rulemaking activity might be unglamorous. What we are talking about is advancing very important rules. The effort to ensure trains have two or more crewmembers which takes a lot ofke work. The complexity of the regulatory process. That would be interfered with at a time when i think everybody gets two, three, four milelong trains we need to have adequate staffing on them. I can get you more details but some of the other functions i think very important will be interrupted. And then you get to the cuts. Run by the whole premise of the shutdown is to try to force cuts the go deeper than what the president the speaker agreed to. 11000 fewer miles of track being inspected but we estimate would be theec effect. And thats of the 8 let alone the cr with 8 cuts let alone though and they voted in april that a more severe cuts. There is no way you can say you are about more Railroad Safety and then cut access or cut inspections helping to make sure that safety is secured. Our rights. Ill bemo in touch with you if u need more detailed numbers in the department but i appreciate coming in, thank you. Cspans washington journal life form involving related issues in government, politics, and public policy. For washington and across the country coming up friday morning we will discuss the latest on congressional efforts to government funding bills before saturdays deadline first with the bloomberg congressional reporter erica watson Virginia Republican congressman bob goode a member of the Budget Committee and the Freedom Caucus for it fruit andcalifornia republican congresswoman eight member of the ways and means a committee and progressive caucus. See spans washington journal join in the conversation live at 7 00 a. M. Eastern on friday morning on cspan, cspan now or online cspan. Org. As part of our new series we are asking you what books do you think shaped america . Book is to kill a mockingbird. That feminine mistake it for. 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