Christopher Peak Photo
U.S. Chris Murphy and Mayor Toni Harp call for an end to the government shutdown.
A longtime Federal Aviation Administration employee, who’s been working without pay to keep planes flying into Tweed-New Haven Airport, asked Congressional Republicans Friday to start doing their job and reopen the government.
Dennis Amato, a 27-year electronics systems technician who maintains the airport’s weather detectors, navigational aids, surveillance radar and other equipment, was joined by a U.S. senator and a mayor at the airline check-in counter to blast the federal government shutdown.
“Put us back to work. We’re dedicated employees who show up to work every day and make it safe to travel,” Amato said. “They should perhaps make it illegal to shut the government down in the future.”
Dennis Amato, an airway transportation systems specialist.
The federal government has been partially closed since Dec. 22, because of an impasse over President Donald Trump’s demand for $5 billion to lengthen an existing barrier at the southern border. House Democrats passed a bill to reopen the government, but Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refuses to bring it to the floor.
Friday marks three weeks since the shutdown began; Saturday will make it the longest in history. Nearly 800,000 federal workers have been furloughed; Congress has voted to ensure they receive back pay.
Tweed New Haven Airport.
Locally, that has meant a diminished workforce at the federal building on Orange Street, at the F.B.I. headquarters on State Street, and at the Coast Guard station in the East Shore, said Mayor Toni Harp. Eateries downtown have already noticed they’re losing business, she said.
The situation could worsen if food stamps, school lunches, housing subsidies and other safety-net programs stop processing payments, Harp added. She called recipients of those services “innocent victims of Oval Office obstinance.”
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy said that Trump’s proposed out — declaring a “national emergency” to reappropriate money intended for disaster recovery towards the border wall — will not survive a legal challenge.
“I don’t think the courts will allow him to do that. It would be illegal and unconstitutional to try to break a legislative stalemate by declaring a national emergency.” he said. “For the sake of the future of American democracy, I hope that the president does not illegally declare an emergency, simply because he can’t get Congress to agree to build a border wall that a majority of Americans don’t want.”
Murphy added that he’d be willing to discuss putting more money towards border security after the government is reopened.
“I and many of my Democratic colleagues will be happy to talk to [Trump] about border security, but we are not going to let these T.S.A. employees, our food inspectors and F.B.I. agents be used as hostages in order to get what he wants from Congress. This shutdown needs to end, then we can sit down and talk about anything that the president wants to talk about.”
Larissa Martinez: Why is the debate on Trump’s terms?
One traveler who’d just touched down from Dallas argued that Democratic politicians are framing the issue the wrong way.
Trotting out stories of unpaid government workers being unable to afford childcare or medical bills just showed that the country needs more robust social-welfare programs, argued Larissa Martinez, a Yale student and Unidad Latina En Accion activist.
“I feel like all they want to do is blame Trump, but the flaws in the system were not all created by him,” Martinez said, after asking Murphy why he wasn’t pushing for better pay during the press conference. “If they’re living paycheck to paycheck, what are you doing about it?”
This our miserable dysfunctional life with thiw president, an insane clown, a senile republican. Yes Dorothy, the wheel came before the wall. Yeah let's talk medieval....