1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

We demand that you act — now. While elected officials posture, delay, and perform on cable news, real Americans are keeping this nation functioning through sheer duty — many while working without pay. Air traffic controllers are working up to double shifts, on skeleton staffing, for zero compensation. These are the people separating aircraft full of 150–300 passengers from colliding in U.S. airspace every single minute of every single day. During the 2018–2019 shutdown, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association reported FAA staffing at a 30-year low. One single sick-out at the New York TRACON — which oversees JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark — brought nationwide aviation delays within hours. We are heading directly toward that same crisis again. TSA is in the same situation. Officers are working extreme hours, without pay, and being told to “just manage it.” During the last shutdown, TSA sick calls doubled at major hubs — including ATL, DFW, IAH, and MIA — and Miami was forced to close security lanes. Many airports saw security wait times exceed 90 minutes. This is not hypothetical. This is not political theater. This is the aviation safety infrastructure of the United States — and you are allowing it to degrade in real time. Your inaction is creating: • controller fatigue in radar rooms • overwhelmed screening checkpoints • longer passenger processing times • stalled training pipelines • elevated near-miss risk Congress is knowingly endangering the safest airspace system on Earth. The bare minimum — the most basic duty of governance — is to ensure the professionals who protect human life in the aviation system are funded. Therefore, we demand: • Immediate reopening of the government • Full funding of FAA operations • Full funding of TSA operations There is no excuse. There is no justification. There is no spin that changes the stakes. Do your jobs — so they can continue to safely do theirs.