*By Carlo Versano and Chloe Aiello* It was an urgent warning from a group of professionals not known for a proclivity to scare the public. "In our risk averse industry, we cannot even calculate the level of risk currently at play, nor predict the point at which the entire system will break. It is unprecedented," the [statement](https://www.afacwa.org/air_traffic_controllers_pilots_flight_attendants_detail_serious_safety_concerns_due_to_shutdown) read in part. It was issued jointly on Wednesday, from the unions representing America's air-traffic controllers, pilots, and flight attendants. Such is the state of affairs as the partial shutdown of the government over funding for a border wall limps toward its sixth week. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers will miss their second paychecks starting this Friday, unless President Trump and Congress come to an agreement to end the stalemate before then. That seems unlikely. By Thursday morning, five former Homeland Security secretaries, including John Kelly, who was Trump's chief of staff when the shutdown began, wrote a [letter](https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1088245041288613888) to the president and Congress demanding that funding for DHS be restored. The impact of the shutdown, they worried, will force talented Homeland Security agents to leave their jobs, perhaps finding more stable ー and lucrative ー work in the private sector. That kind of "brain drain" could be one of the lasting impacts of this shutdown ー after all, many government workers aren't in it for the money. What happens when frustrations with a broken political system outweigh the sense of mission at institutions like the FAA, FBI, or NASA? Benjamin Zhang, a reporter at Business Insider who covers transportation, told Cheddar "the system has held together surprisingly well," considering air travel safety staff have not been paid for weeks. But safety concerns are still costing commercial airlines money and putting travelers at risk. Delta ($DAL), for example, said it would have to [delay the debut of its new Airbus A220 aircraft](https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/15/delta-government-shutdown-to-likely-delay-start-of-new-airbus-a220-jets.html), because furloughed Federal Aviation Administration regulators can't certify it before its targeted Jan. 31 launch date. But there's more than money on the line. Furloughed National Transportation Safety Board officials can't investigate a crash that killed five children headed to Disney World, and ongoing investigations ー like one probing a limo accident in New York that killed 20 ー are on hold. "Ninety-two percent of the National Transportation Safety Board's staff are on furlough right now, which means that there are 87 accidents that aren't being investigated," Zhang said. "These are incidents that need to be investigated to ensure the safety of the traveling public." Danielle Paquette, a reporter at The Washington Post who has been following the shutdown's ripple effects, told Cheddar that the impact "on the ground" could soon be felt by millions of Americans besides the furloughed federal worker directly affected. Another early casualty may come in the form of delayed tax refund checks. At the IRS, many unpaid workers are staying home, despite an order recalling thousands of them back to work without pay to process tax returns. Many of the workers defying the order simply can't afford the cost of their commute to the office. Paquette spoke to IRS employees who said the staffing shortfall means it could be June before people see their refund checks in the mail. "People depend on this money," she said. "It's money they've already earned." A public uproar over tax refunds is one consequence that could force an end to the political impasse, especially since the protestations of government workers have yet to yield much in the way of action. Some recent statements from the Trump Administration have also exposed a lack of appreciation for the dire plight of some furloughed workers.Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who has a personal fortune north of $700 million, told CNBC on Wednesday that he didn't understand why federal employees couldn't just take out loans to cover their short-term expenses rather than resorting to food banks as some have been forced to do. Meanwhile, Lara Trump, the president's daughter-in-law, said that workers should accept "a little bit of pain" as a sacrifice to the bigger cause of a border wall. "Even missing one paycheck can send a family into a dire situation," Paquette said. "It's just so much harder than people can imagine if they're not going through it." For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/shutdown-could-delay-tax-returns).
