Airport Worker Pay Protection Bills Continue to Stall in Congress Despite Shutdowns

Multiple bipartisan bills designed to guarantee pay for air traffic controllers and TSA workers during government shutdowns have repeatedly failed to advance in Congress. Despite ongoing disruptions to air travel and financial hardship for workers, lawmakers have been unable to pass legislation that would prevent these essential employees from working without pay.

Congressional lawmakers have repeatedly introduced legislation with names like the Aviation Funding Solvency Act, Keep America Flying Act, Keep Air Travel Safe Act, and Aviation Funding Stability Act, all sharing a common goal: guaranteeing paychecks for federal aviation workers during government shutdowns.

Despite bipartisan support and multiple reintroductions, these measures consistently fail to become law. Once government funding resumes and airport delays disappear from headlines, the legislation loses momentum and workers remain vulnerable to future unpaid work periods.

“Once the crisis is over, people assume that the good times are back,” explained Eric Chaffee, a Case Western Reserve law professor who studies aviation industry risk management. “It’s easy to pass the next big bill when you’re still in the throes of the financial crisis, but once the shutdown is done, people have a relatively short memory of the problems that it created.”

Following the 2019 holiday season shutdown, lawmakers have repeatedly drafted and resubmitted various versions of worker protection measures. The Aviation Funding Stability Act has been reintroduced in 2019, 2021, and 2025, while the bipartisan Aviation Funding Solvency Act emerged after last fall’s shutdown to safeguard air traffic controller wages.

October saw the introduction of the Keep Air Travel Safe Act, which would extend protections to TSA agents, and the Keep America Flying Act, covering both TSA staff and specific FAA employees. More comprehensive legislation like the Shutdown Fairness Act, introduced in January, would secure pay for all essential federal workers nationwide, but these broader measures have also failed to advance.

“Congress cares about headlines, and as a result of that, it means they don’t always make changes that would be really beneficial,” Chaffee noted.

Air travel disruptions have persisted alongside legislative efforts. The 35-day shutdown during Trump’s presidency, triggered by border wall funding disputes, caused East Coast airport delays and extended security wait times as controllers and TSA agents worked without compensation.

Last fall’s record-breaking 43-day shutdown renewed aviation safety concerns. The FAA took unprecedented action by directing airlines to reduce flights at 40 major airports as unscheduled worker absences worsened existing air traffic control staffing problems.

TSA personnel endured multiple consecutive shutdowns, including one beginning January 31st and another affecting only the Department of Homeland Security starting February 14th. Daily absenteeism reached thousands as the standoff continued into its second month.

Carlos Rodriguez, a TSA agent and union representative in New York, described how many employees hadn’t financially recovered from the previous year’s shutdown when the current one began.

“Part of the American dream that I was sold was that working for the government was honorable and stable,” said Rodriguez, a second-generation Dominican American. “But this is not honorable or stable.”

On the 42nd day of the DHS shutdown, Trump issued an emergency directive ordering immediate TSA payment. This followed House Republicans rejecting a Senate agreement that would have funded TSA, Coast Guard, and FEMA while excluding ICE and Border Patrol. The House subsequently passed its own bill funding the entire Homeland Security department through May 22nd, but senators had already departed.

Johnny Jones, secretary-treasurer of the TSA division within the American Federation of Government Employees, said union members resent being treated as political bargaining chips.

Workers feel the congressional maneuvering resembles “let’s checkmate the queen with the TSA pawn here, and then we’ll smash them over whenever we feel like it,” Jones explained. “We’re on the chess board.”

Aviation industry stakeholders, including labor unions, airline executives, and airport officials, have launched public campaigns through open letters, newspaper advertisements, and direct lobbying to push for action on existing bipartisan proposals.

“Congress has the power to end this dysfunction once and for all, and must use any legislative vehicle to accomplish this goal,” stated the Modern Skies Coalition in a recent joint declaration. The coalition, representing over 60 organizations, highlighted the Aviation Funding Solvency Act, Aviation Funding Stability Act, and Keep America Flying Act as viable solutions.

Airlines for America’s president and CEO echoed these sentiments in a Washington Times editorial this week, arguing that Congress “must get to the table immediately” to prevent future scenes of angry passengers, crowded terminals, and charity drives for public workers.

“Right now, lawmakers are sitting on their hands doing nothing with three viable, bipartisan bills that could prevent this mess,” wrote Chris Sununu, the former New Hampshire governor who assumed leadership of the trade association last year.

The American Federation of Government Employees collaborated with over 30 unions this week to advocate for the Shutdown Fairness Act, cautioning that funding interruptions damage worker morale, hiring, and retention.

TSA employees have reported sleeping in vehicles or considering selling them to afford rent. Union officials describe workers unable to stock their refrigerators or fuel their cars.

Caleb Harmon-Marshall, a former TSA officer who publishes the Gate Access travel newsletter, said officers he’s contacted are anxious to receive complete back pay quickly due to mounting bills and debt. However, without long-term certainty, more officers may skip work or resign.

If the presidential emergency order covers only one pay cycle, “that’s not enough to bring them back,” Harmon-Marshall warned. “It has to be an extended pay for them to come back or want to stay there.”

Previous bipartisan legislation has struggled to reach completion. The 2019 Aviation Funding Act introduced by Kansas Republican Senator Jerry Moran attracted 13 co-sponsors, including eight Democrats, but never advanced from committee. A House version by Oregon Democrat Peter DeFazio eventually gained 303 co-sponsors and cleared the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee but never received a floor vote.

The current polarized political climate may doom present legislation to similar failure, according to Chaffee.

“We live in a society currently where things are very polarized,” he observed. “Whether or not any of these bills get passed, it will need to have political momentum behind it, meaning it will need to be something that the public really wants to see happen.”