Watch: CBO Director Warns Another Shutdown Would Increase Risk of ‘Security Incidents’

As Donald Trump threatens another government shutdown, Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Director Keith Hall warns that another shutdown would increase the risk of “security incidents.”

Hall spoke to reporters on Capitol Hill Monday about the CBO’s Budget and Economic Outlook 2019 to 2029 report, but was asked to comment on the effects of the Trump shutdown, which the CBO estimated at $11 billion.

As part of that response, Hall volunteered that “There are probably other effects which we don’t take into account which aren’t so strong yet, but which would be very strong if, or which would be stronger anyway, if the shutdown lasted longer, or if it picked back up.”

“Risk would be higher for those low-probability, high-cost events,” he added. “You know, one of the things that I like to point out, of those 2.1 million federal workers, two-thirds of those work for either the Department of Defense, the VA, or TSA, so security is a big part of that.”

Hall was then asked about the “breaking point” for those effects, and he said that was “Unknowable, because a lot of it involves people’s confidence, you know, and of course again, we survived 5 weeks without any incidents, for example, security incidents. But, you know, the chances of that would go up if we shut down again.”

One of the factors that led Trump to temporarily reopen the government was the dramatic effect that the shutdown took on air travel. But in interviews over the weekend, Trump and his administration made it clear that another shutdown is very much on the table.

Watch the clip above, via C-Span.

Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com