Air Traffic Controllers Still Waiting on Much of Pay Raise While FAA Defends Withholding
Air traffic controllers are waiting for the bulk of the 3.8 percent pay raise that Congress appropriated for them in April 2026 as part of the spending package ending the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown.
Now two senators are urging Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Bryan Bedford to greenlight the payments.
The letter from Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) comes after the Washington Examiner reported that Administrator Bedford has only authorized the governmentwide one percent raise and has withheld the remainder of the 3.8 percent increase.
This as the law granted the administrator “sole discretion” to ensure “workforce scheduling, staffing utilization or other operational efficiencies” first.
For example, Administrator Bedford told the Examiner that getting “as much utilization out of our workforce as we can” would help “unlock the 2.8%.”
In their letter, Senators Durbin and Duckworth said the law’s conditions are “not a high bar” and that the administrator is asking too much from an already stretched ATC workforce.
“The last thing our National Airspace System needs is a cynical FAA Administrator so hellbent on stretching them thinner that he is willing to withhold their modest 2.8 percent pay raise,” wrote Senators Durbin and Duckworth.
House Hearing
For his part, Administrator Bedford testified before a House Appropriations Subcommittee on the raise and other issues impacting the FAA.
He repeated that the law provides for him to withhold the raise until specific workforce improvement goals are met.
“The language says specifically that, ‘Such adjustment has been implemented such that all employees, to the extent the administrator determines and has sole discretion, that improvements in workforce scheduling, staffing utilization, or other operational efficiencies are achieved,'” said Administrator Bedford.
ATC Staffing
The fight over air traffic controller pay comes amid an ongoing shortage. The Examiner said that ATCs are currently about 3,000 positions short. Current and former controllers warn that staffing problems hurt morale and recruitment and could disrupt the nation’s air traffic system.
In his testimony however, Administrator Bedford said the agency has about 11,000 certified professional controllers deployed, with a staffing target of 12,563, and an additional 4,000 controllers in the training pipeline.
