The nearly 4,000 FAA workers who were furloughed during a two-week partial shutdown of the agency over the summer will receive back pay for the time they missed, according to the Department of Transportation.
The pay will show up in the workers’ Oct. 18 paychecks, said an e-mail sent to worker’s from Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt.
The FAA is using authority in a bill passed by Congress in August ending the shutdown to award the back pay. The agency was partially shut down after Congress allowed its operating authority to lapse in a partisan dispute in the House and Senate over union organizing rules and rural airport subsidies.
The shutdown cost FAA nearly $400 million in uncollected airline ticket taxes. The agency also issued stop work orders on more than 200 airport projects, putting thousands of workers in construction-related jobs out of work.
A new agreement in Congress will keep the FAA operating at least through early next year.
