Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Tuesday that the department will run out of money for air traffic control student stipends in about a week because of the partial government shutdown, threatening a pipeline for a workforce already strained by personnel shortages.
Duffy said at a news conference at LaGuardia Airport in New York City that “several” air traffic control students are dropping out of the academy because of the threat of losing the stipend, which he described as a “small amount of money” that helps students make ends meet while attending school.
“This shutdown is making it more difficult for me to accomplish those [hiring] goals,” he said. “We tried to plan for this. We tried to preserve as much money as possible. … When we have new controllers that are being trained up, they don’t make a lot of money, and that’s the base pay they get, and they’re having a hard time making ends meet on the pay itself.”
