Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy a former reality TV and Fox News personality had a bizarre interaction at a congressional hearing where he said he didnt even know how many air traffic controllers have left the workforce this year.Can you tell this committee how many air traffic controllers have left the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] since January 20, 2025? Rep. Hank Johnson Jr (D-GA) asked Duffy at a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee yesterday. Please dont tell me you dont know. Related Pete Buttigiegs replacement Sean Duffy harassed a lesbian for sex on reality TV The current secretary of Transportation asked the woman to feel my noodle. I dont know that, Duffy responded. Insights for the LGBTQ+ community Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more. Subscribe to our Newsletter today This is an important job, Johnson said. Are you trying to tell us you dont know how many air traffic controllers are in the building? From his tone, it was clear that he was using the word building metaphorically, but Duffy didnt seem to pick up on it.Theyre not in a building, theyre in towers, Duffy said. Well, Im just speaking figuratively, Johnson responded charitably. JOHNSON: How many air traffic controllers have left the FAA since January 20? And don't tell me you don't knowDUFFY: I don't know thatJOHNSON: Are you trying to tell us you don't know how many air traffic controllers are in the building?DUFFY: They're in towers pic.twitter.com/xCrhyQ0z14 Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 16, 2025At the start of the current administration, Duffy and the administration fired people in key safety positions in the FAA. The administration fired the head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and dismissedall members of the Aviation Security Advisory Committeein January as well. At the same time, Elon Musk offered numerous federal workers buyouts. The workers may have included air traffic controllers, despite the massive shortage of them in the U.S.The administration contacted air traffic controllers, offering buyouts to leave their jobs, former Transportation Secretary and Duffys predecessor Pete Buttigieg said in February. Its a very easily proven fact. Now they claim the controllers arent eligible for buyouts after all, Buttigieg said at the time. What changed? Why were they sent the offer? At best and this is being generous it was disturbingly sloppy, in a field which demands precision and competence.The air traffic controller crisis has been building for years, in part because many air traffic controllers started their careers at the same time in 1982 when President Ronald Reagan brought them on to replace controllers who were on strike. The Biden administration, according to the New Republic, tried to increase the pace of hiring air traffic controllers but was only able to replace those who were retiring. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) now reports that there are only 10,800 controllers working in the U.S., despite an estimated 14,600 being needed for the industry to be fully staffed. NATCA President Nick Daniels states that 41% of controllers are working six days a week and 10 hours a day to fulfill the workload that a full staff would typically handle. Buttigieg spent part of the Biden administration begging Congress for more money to authorize the hiring of 2000 more controllers. We need more, and were hiring more,Buttigieg said in April 2024on MSNBC after he requested the funding. If you look at just a chart over the last 30 years or so, the number of air traffic controllers has gone down and down and down, until recently where we finally got that number going up.We hired 1,500, then 1,800 in this year. Were requesting a budget from Congress and let us hire 2,000 next year so that you dont have as much of this concern about controllers being overworked. These controllers are pros, and its extraordinary what they do, but we need to support them for that very reason, with the right kind of space between their shifts with more controllers coming into their ranks, and importantly, with better technology.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.