Bill strips back pay for furloughed FAA workers

Federal Aviation Administration employees who were furloughed for two weeks this summer would not receive back pay under draft legislation circulating on Capitol Hill.

The most recent version of legislation extending the FAA's spending authority past Sept. 16 does not include a provision authorizing retroactive pay for thousands of employees who were furloughed when the agency's funding expired July 23 after Congress failed to come to an agreement. An earlier stopgap bill included a provision reimbursing those furloughed employees.

The bill was modified over the weekend reportedly due to concerns from the Senate. The deal now under consideration would combine extensions of funding authority for the FAA through Jan. 31, 2012, and surface transportation programs through March 31, 2012. The spending authority for surface transportation programs expires on Sept. 30.

The new version of the legislation would provide FAA with about $2 million in spending authority for the portion of fiscal 2012 ending before Feb. 1, 2012. The earlier iteration of the bill allocated $1.5 million for the part of fiscal 2012 ending before Jan. 1, 2012.

Congress must authorize back pay for federal employees furloughed during a government shutdown. Essential employees who remained on the job during the partial FAA shutdown will receive retroactive pay for the time they worked, as per usual shutdown protocol.