One federal lawmaker is advocating for all air traffic controllers who worked during the recent government shutdown to be awarded with a cash bonus.
Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), who is also the ranking member on the Senate's aviation subcommittee, has requested that the Trump administration extend the $10,000 shutdown bonus payments it has allotted to select air traffic controllers to the entire ATC workforce.
The Trump administration has so far only promised the bonus checks to controllers who didn’t miss a single day of work during the 43-day shutdown.
"Excluding 96 percent of the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Air Traffic Controller and Technician workforce from this bonus is unfair, divisive and disrespectful to the over 20,000 dedicated Federal employees who worked under extremely stressful conditions to ensure our Nation Airspace System (NAS) was safe during the 2025 shutdown," Duckworth wrote in a letter to Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy on Wednesday.
Only 311 air traffic controllers are slated to receive the bonus checks by December 9, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association told CBS News.
The air traffic controller workforce was a hot-button issue during the entirety of the shutdown, as the safety professionals were asked to continue working without payment, which led to significant financial strain for many controllers.
The financial hardship led to an uptick of controllers calling out of work, which then caused the FAA to begin cutting flight schedules across the 40 busiest U.S. airports by up to six percent.
Officials, including Duffy, also noted during the government’s closure that the lack of payment heaped on tension in an already-stressful work environment and likely added risk into the national airspace system.
All air traffic controllers eventually received their regular, full paychecks for the shutdown period.
Being too selective with the bonuses could alienate the majority of the ATC workforce who haven’t received a check, according to Duckworth’s letter. That could prove to be perilous as the FAA and DOT try to “supercharge” the hiring process for air traffic controllers and fill dire staffing shortages in control towers across the country.
"[W]hen FAA is operating 3,800 fully certified controllers short of the agency's staffing target, and Air Traffic Controller morale is rapidly plummeting to new lows, the absolute last thing the Trump administration should be doing is excluding thousands of dedicated patriots who worked without pay during the most recent shutdown from the $10,000 award," Duckworth’s letter said.
Other federal workers, like TSA officers, also received $10,000 bonus checks from the Trump administration for not missing work or going “above and beyond” during the shutdown. But that agency is overseen by the Department of Homeland Security, not the Department of Transportation.
Since the shutdown ended on November 13, lawmakers have introduced a bipartisan bill that seeks to secure paychecks for air traffic controllers during future shutdowns. However, it’s not clear if that legislation will make any significant progress in Congress toward becoming a law.
For the latest travel news, updates and deals, subscribe to the daily TravelPulse newsletter.
Topics From This Article to Explore
