US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy threatened to fire air traffic controllers who are calling in sick while working without pay during the government shutdown.
In an interview with Fox Business News on Thursday, Duffy called the absent employees "problem children" and said they are accounting for more than half the country's flight delays as the shutdown continues with no signs of lawmakers coming to a deal.
He praised controllers who are still showing up to work and said only about 10% are "lashing out" by not coming to work while the government goes unfunded and is unable to pay them.
"If we have some of our staff that aren't dedicated like we need, we're going to let them go," he said.
Duffy said the "small subset of controllers" were creating "this massive disruption" of flight delays and cancellations.
