Obama Demands Back Pay for Furloughed FAA Workers

When the House and Senate finally struck a deal early this month to end a two-week partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration, left up in the air was the question of whether furloughed employees would receive back pay for the time they weren't allowed to work. Traditionally, back pay has been awarded to employees placed in furlough situations due to funding squabbles, but in today's budget environment, all bets are off.

Well, now we know where President Obama stands on the issue, anyway. Today, in a statement in the Rose Garden, he made a plea for Congress to approve a transportation bill providing funding for highway construction, bridge repair, mass transit and other projects. And he added this:

Just a few weeks ago, Congress refused to act on another bill, typically a routine bill, that would have ended up pulling thousands of aviation workers off the job and delaying necessary airport improvement projects across the country. And when Congress finally got their act together, they only funded the FAA until September 16th. That's why, when they come back next month, not only do they need to pass the transportation bill but they've also got to pass a clean extension of that FAA bill -- for longer this time -- and address back pay for the workers who were laid off during the last shutdown.