'We will delay, we will cancel' flights to make sure people are safe: Duffy on ATC issues

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned Sunday that flights across the country could be delayed or even canceled due to the ongoing government shutdown as staffing shortages at air traffic control facilities spread nationwide. 

Speaking with ABC News' "This Week" co-anchor Martha Raddatz while a ground stop was in effect at Newark Liberty International Airport, Duffy said "We will delay, we will cancel, any kind of flight across the national airspace to make sure people are safe" amid the shortages.

"There is a level of risk that gets injected into the system when we have a controller that's doing two jobs instead of one," he added.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, nearly 50% of all major air traffic control facilities face staffing shortages. Air traffic controllers are required to work without pay for the duration of the shutdown.

"If the government doesn't open in the next week or two, we'll look back as these were the good days, not the bad days," Duffy warned.

Asked by Raddatz if the Trump administration would consider using alternative funding mechanisms to keep air traffic controllers paid, Duffy confirmed that the administration was "pulling in whatever dollars we can."

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"But there's real restrictions. When you don't fund the government," Duffy said, "When you say there's no dollars available, it becomes really challenging to find dollars to pay the different components of really critical workforces that keep our country moving forward."

Duffy also defended President Donald Trump's hardline approach to spending negotiations with Democrats despite telling NBC in a 2011 interview that it's the president's job to bring parties together and negotiate a settlement during a shutdown.

"Should President Trump -- given what he said [in 2011] -- should President Trump be meeting, would you like to see him hold another meeting?" Raddatz asked.

"Here's the problem. Donald Trump has nothing to negotiate with. We passed a clean funding bill. Right? So what do you negotiate with when you -- again money in September, same as October. Democrats are trying to use this as leverage and again, trying to change legislation that they don't like," Duffy said.