United States

At O'Hare, Illinois Dems Call For Government Shutdown to End

Its their job to keep the nation’s skies safe: the air traffic controllers at Aurora Center.

But like others affected by the government shutdown, these highly trained federal employees are now doing so without pay.

"Last Friday we received paychecks with all zeroes on them," Toby Hauck, of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said. "It’s a distraction into the workplace and it’s a very complex job to have another distraction added to that."

At O’Hare Monday morning, Illinois’ Democratic congressional delegation called for an end to what is now the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

"This is a crisis that doesn’t need to be," Rep. Jan Schakowsky said. "We can discuss border security. We want to discuss even the wall. We can discuss immigration. But in the meantime, we have to get government going again."

So far O’Hare has only seen minimal impact from TSA workers calling in sick, but other airports are suffering.

Traveler Ben Taylor was arriving Monday from Atlanta.

"It was pretty much a zoo," Taylor said. "Security was backed up all the way to the baggage claim on the north and south side. I have never seen it that long even at the holidays."

And passengers Monday were looking for an end to the shutdown even if they support the reasons behind it--like traveler Jeff Webster who said he's "all for" the shutdown.

"This country needs to move forward and the only way to move forward is to progress," he said. "Both of them fighting and trying to shut things down doesn’t make any sense."

And some in Congress say it will take public pressure to force the shutdown to end.

"I think that the pressure is growing on moderate Republicans in particular," Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia said. "I think that will spread."

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