Rep. Omar Spotlights Shutdown Effect On Airport Screeners, Others
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO/AP) — It's Day 32 of the Government shutdown and Minnesota is feeling the sting.
Air travelers in Minnesota are enduring some of the longest screening waits in the nation, and it's caught the attention of Rep. Ilhan Omar.
The Minneapolis Democrat is highlighting those wait times as the federal government shutdown moves into its second month; the average wait time Saturday stretched to 41 minutes. MSP is the 16th busiest airport in the country, but passenger traffic.
Omar held a news conference with DACA recipients and federal workers who are not getting paid. Security screeners are among federal workers going without pay, and as worker absences have crept up, so have wait times.
Watch the full press conference below:
Omar, surrounded by labor leaders and DACA recipients, called for the shutdown to end and said President Trump's proposal to trade a three-year reprieve for DACA in exchange for border wall funding is not acceptable.
"We're soon going to have a crisis when these employees decide that these employees are not going to show up for free," Omar said.
Many Republicans are urging the President to stand firm. One of them is Minnesota Rep. Jim Hagedorn. He said on Twitter, "The President's latest proposal to secure America's borders and re-open the federal government is reasonable. I support his commonsense initiative. It's time for Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats to compromise."
Senate Republicans are going to introduce a bill to end the shutdown, potentially Tuesday, but the White House says it looks like the Senate won't vote on the bill until Thursday.
(© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
