Welcome to meet the press now.

I'm Kristen Welker in Washington, where the country's longest government shutdown is running into this week's election results, leaving both parties and the president recalibrating

their path forward. As consequences, mount for Americans across the country, air travel set to

become the latest area affected. With the FAA announcing it will reduce flights across 40 major

airports beginning tomorrow to deal with staffing shortages among air traffic controllers

who are working without pay and to maintain safety.

Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, saying even once the government reopens, those cuts

could linger.

It's going to take us some time to staff back up.

We're going to start to reduce that 10%, maybe to

five, maybe to four until we can get back to normal travel. Republicans on Capitol Hill using

the announcement to hammer their Democratic colleagues over the ongoing shutdown.

What do you expect when we have air traffic controllers not showing up to work because they're not getting paid?

I can't believe if we're not working.

I feel bad for the air traffic controllers.

I feel bad for the TSA agents.

I feel bad for everybody who's not getting paid.

Whether or not it adds more pressure, probably.

We need to open the government because it's doing enormous damage to the American people.

The impact this will have will be immense.

And all of it, because Democrats cannot bring themselves to accept a clean, nonpartisan funding resolution.

But some Senate Democrats are signaling they feel their shutdown strategy was vindicated by

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