by Lacey Pfalz
Last updated: 11:25 AM ET, Mon February 2, 2026
As the House of Representatives gets back to work today, February 2, to vote on a government funding package that would end the partial government shutdown that began last week, a group of travel industry associations, including the U.S. Travel Association, Airlines for America and the American Hotel & Lodging Association, have issued a joint statement encouraging the House to end the government shutdown.
"We saw firsthand how government shutdowns significantly disrupt travel and hurt our economy last year,” they said in their joint statement. “The 2025 shutdown had an economic impact of $6 billion—nearly $140 million per day—and negatively impacted more than 6 million passengers. When air traffic controllers and TSA officers are forced to work without pay, it strains an already under-resourced aviation system and sends ripple effects across the entire travel ecosystem.
“We implore the House to act with urgency to vote on the package that the Senate passed on Friday so that vital government agencies can re-open and frontline federal workers—including controllers and TSA officers—can be paid for the important work they do,” the statement continues. “It’s up to the House to pass these measures to prevent significant disruptions, protect travelers, and maintain confidence in the U.S. air travel system.
“Congress must also pursue solutions to guarantee that TSA officers and air traffic controllers are paid regardless of future funding lapses. The Aviation Funding Solvency Act (H.R. 6086) and the Aviation Funding Stability Act (S. 1045) would ensure air traffic controllers and other critical FAA employees get paid during shutdowns and would use funds already paid into the system. These are commonsense proposals that have bipartisan support and should be passed swiftly.”
The previous government shutdown occurred about eleven weeks ago and was the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, at 43 days. During this time, TSA officers and air traffic controllers, along with other federal employees, were not paid, creating a massive strain that grew so bad that the FAA reduced air traffic by 10 percent at the worst point of the shutdown.
This recent shutdown occurred over funding the Department of Homeland Security and ICE, which is under growing scrutiny following the shooting deaths of two people from Minnesota.
The White House, when this new partial shutdown began, sent out a memo to agencies noting that it anticipates the shutdown to be short. The FAA is one of the agencies currently under the shutdown.
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