TSA agents and other aviation workers are pressing Congress for a lasting legislative fix that would ensure they get paid during government shutdowns, warning that the recurring funding gaps have left many struggling financially and destabilized staffing. The push comes after President Donald Trump signed an emergency order instructing Homeland Security to pay TSA agents immediately, part of a response to a DHS funding lapse that had stretched into its 42nd day.
Across recent shutdown cycles, lawmakers have repeatedly introduced bills aimed at protecting pay for aviation workers who must keep reporting for duty even as appropriations stall. Yet, according to the latest reporting, session after session has ended without those proposals becoming law, meaning workers do not have a standing guarantee that a future budget impasse will not interrupt their paychecks again.
Eric Chaffee, a Case Western Reserve law professor who studies risk management in the aviation industry, said Congress’s approach reflects how political incentives change once the immediate crisis fades. “Once the crisis is over, people assume that the good times are back,” Chaffee said, arguing it becomes “easy” for lawmakers to pass major measures only while the financial crisis is still unfolding, and harder once the shutdown ends and public attention drops.
Since 2019, lawmakers have drafted and reintroduced aviation-specific proposals with bipartisan co-sponsors. The reporting describes several efforts that would protect pay for different categories of workers, including air traffic controllers and TSA agents: the Aviation Funding Stability Act, the Aviation Funding Solvency Act introduced after a shutdown last fall, the Keep Air Travel Safe Act filed in October, and the Keep America Flying Act also filed in October. Broader proposals, including the Shutdown Fairness Act introduced in January, sought to maintain pay for essential federal workers across the government, but those measures have stalled as well.
During the shutdown that began in the first term of President Donald Trump, disruptions included delays at East Coast airports and prolonged wait times as air traffic controllers and TSA agents went unpaid. The more recent shutdown in the reporting period lasted 43 days, with the FAA ordering airlines to cut flights at 40 of the nation’s busiest airports because of safety risks and unscheduled absences tied to pay disruption and staffing shortages.
As the DHS funding lapse continued, thousands of TSA workers began missing shifts each day, with the reporting describing additional shutdown episodes after the DHS funding lapsed on Feb. 14 and a separate short shutdown starting Jan. 31. Carlos Rodriguez, a TSA agent and local union leader in New York, said many workers had not recovered financially from last year’s shutdown when this one hit. “Part of the American dream that I was sold was that working for the government was honorable and stable,” Rodriguez said. “But this is not honorable or stable.”
The emergency order came after House Republicans defeated a Senate deal that would have funded parts of DHS but not Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. After senators left town, the House passed its own bill to fund the full Homeland Security department through May 22, but the order signed on Friday instructed Homeland Security to pay TSA agents immediately. Johnny Jones, secretary-treasurer of the TSA division of the American Federation of Government Employees, said union members resent having their livelihoods treated like bargaining chips in political brinkmanship. Jones said the process feels like “let’s checkmate the queen with the TSA pawn here, and then we’ll smash them over whenever we feel like it,” adding, “We’re on the chess board.”
Outside Capitol Hill, pressure has mounted from unions, airlines and airport executives urging lawmakers to adopt at least one of the existing bipartisan proposals. The Modern Skies Coalition, a group of more than 60 organizations, said in a joint statement this week that Congress “has the power to end this dysfunction once and for all” and urged action through the Aviation Funding Solvency Act, Aviation Funding Stability Act and Keep America Flying Act. Airlines for America, a trade group representing major U.S. airlines, also urged legislative action in an op-ed in The Washington Times, arguing Congress “must get to the table immediately” to prevent more scenes of frustrated passengers and disruptions linked to security staffing problems.
The reporting also described the Shutdown Fairness Act effort as a focal point for labor support. The American Federation of Government Employees joined more than 30 unions in urging Congress to pass the Shutdown Fairness Act, warning that funding lapses undermine employee morale, recruitment and retention.
Beyond letters and ads, workers’ accounts described day-to-day fallout from not knowing when pay would arrive. Some TSA workers reported sleeping in their cars or considering selling them to make rent, and union leaders described workers struggling to cover basic necessities such as refrigerator food and gas. Caleb Harmon-Marshall, a former TSA officer who runs a travel newsletter called Gate Access, said the officers he spoke with wanted back pay quickly but worried that emergency funding limited to a single pay period would not stabilize them. Harmon-Marshall said if the order only funds one pay period, “that’s not enough to bring them back,” adding, “It has to be an extended pay for them to come back or want to stay there.”
Chaffee said earlier iterations of the legislation struggled to clear political hurdles even with bipartisan backing, and he questioned whether today’s polarized environment would allow the measures to break through. He said the Aviation Funding Act of 2019 introduced by Sen. Jerry Moran had 13 co-sponsors, including eight Democrats, but did not move out of committee; a House version introduced by Oregon Democrat Peter DeFazio cleared the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and had 303 co-sponsors but did not receive a floor vote. He said the current environment may consign the legislation in Congress now to the same fate, and argued that whether the bills pass will depend on political momentum—meaning legislation will need to reflect what the public wants “to see happen.”
The article was reported by Rio Yamat for the Associated Press, with additional contributions from Mae Anderson and Josh Funk.