Norton to Introduce Bill Seeking Back Pay for Furloughed FAA Workers

August 5, 2011

WASHINGTON, DC - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced today that she will introduce a bill seeking back pay for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees, who were forced into a two-week furlough and those who worked without pay because Congress failed to reach an agreement and pass a short-term FAA reauthorization bill. She also is investigating the possibility of back pay for the 74,000 airport construction workers, but making them whole is more difficult and complicated because they work for contractors, not the federal government, and, because of the nature of construction work, they may not have worked full time on the airport projects.

However, Norton said, "There is ample precedent and reason for back pay for the FAA workers, which a Republican Congress provided for furloughed federal employees after 1995-96 federal government shutdowns. Moreover, these are vital employees, some who paid out of pocket for their own travel to do federal jobs for which they received no pay. These skilled employees, many at work on the Next Generation project overhauling the air travel system to ensure safety and added convenience in today's crowded skies, may be so disgusted they could take their vital skills elsewhere. We have always made federal employees whole when they lost wages because Congress failed to do its job. We let the country and these workers down. The least we can do is to avoid making a bad situation worse by depriving these workers of two-weeks' pay while Congress is on vacation receiving full pay."

Norton also called on the airlines to turn over the almost $400 million in unjust enrichment they received when they effectively pocketed uncollected federal airfare taxes by raising the base price of their tickets. Airlines are direct beneficiaries of the FAA constructions projects funded by these taxes. Without these airport construction funds, the airlines themselves would lose as much as taxpayers, she said, because these funds are used for construction essential to air travel, such as runway improvements and updated control towers. Only Delta Airlines has indicated it will turn over these funds to the government.

Last week, Norton led a press conference with the ranking members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and of the Aviation Subcommittee in the hope that exposure of the FAA disaster, which was being overshadowed by the debt ceiling controversy, would lead her Republican colleagues to end their shutout of these workers. She also introduced a bill with Congressman Alcee Hastings (D-FL) of the Rules Committee to allow the 4,000 furloughed FAA employees, including 1,000 from the region, to return to work immediately and to receive back pay from the Aviation Trust Fund for the period they were furloughed.