November 12, 2025
By a vote of 222 to 209, the House of Representatives tonight narrowly passed a continuing resolution to reopen the government and provide funding to keep it operating until January 30, 2026. The President is expected to sign the measure into law soon, bringing an end to the longest shutdown in U.S. history that forced air traffic controllers and TSOs to work without pay and disrupted the aviation system with massive flight delays and cancellations.
What’s Next?
Federal Employees: Air traffic controllers, TSOs, and other essential federal employees have been working without pay during the government shutdown. Passage and enactment of the CR will allow them to receive back pay and should reduce staffing pressures that prompted DOT to phase in flight reductions in recent days.
At a press conference at O’Hare International Airport yesterday, DOT Secretary Sean Duffy said that controllers will receive 70 percent of their back pay within 24 to 48 hours after the shutdown ends and the remaining 30 percent within a week. Duffy urged controllers to come back to work and “help navigate the airspace effectively for the American people.”
Neither DHS nor TSA have provided any indication as to when TSOs will begin receiving back pay. Airports, airlines, concessionaires, and financial institutions took steps to help TSOs, controllers, and other federal employees during the shutdown. But there were widespread reports of controllers and other affected federal employees taking second jobs to help pay their bills.
Secretary Duffy Speaks Highly of Contract Tower Controllers: As we previously reported, controllers at contract towers are continuing to get paid during the shutdown. During a separate press at the Central Wisconsin Airport (CWA) yesterday, Duffy spoke positively about contract tower controllers and CWA – an FCT airport that Duffy called his “home airport.”
Duffy said that private controllers at CWA “do a great job” and “wonderful work.” The Secretary told reporters that he met with a supervisor and one of the FCT controllers during his visit. Duffy’s remarks on the government shutdown and his positive comments about CWA and the FCT controllers who work at the airport may be viewed here. (His contract tower comments begin at the three-minute mark.)
Flight Reductions: Last week, the FAA issued an emergency order requiring air carriers to reduce their total daily scheduled domestic operations at 40 airports. The plan started with a 4 percent reduction on Friday, and it increased to 6 percent yesterday. The order had called for further reductions totaling 8 percent tomorrow and 10 percent on Friday. However, it was reported this evening that DOT and FAA plan to freeze flight reductions at the current 6 percent because of improving controller staffing rather than raise the reductions to 8 percent tomorrow as previously planned.
According to FlightAware, there were more than 11,200 flight delays and almost 3,000 cancelled flights on Sunday. Yesterday, the number of delays dropped to less than 4,200 and cancellations dropped to less than 1,300. Separately, the FAA issued NOTAMs that prohibited GA and non-scheduled operations at 12 commercial service airports beginning on Monday. Those airports were: ATL, ORD, DFW, BOS, IAH, DEN, JFK, LAX, EWR, PHX, DCA, and SEA.
The end of the shutdown should allow the DOT and FAA to roll back those flight reductions. But the timing is unclear. Duffy said yesterday that the agency will use data to determine when the airspace will get back to normal. He suggested that the agency may gradually reduce flight reductions from 6 percent to 4 percent, and then to 2 percent before getting back to regular operations.
Key Details of CR and Senate Agreement
In order to secure the 60 votes necessary to reopen the federal government, Senate Republican leaders and a small group of Democrats and an Independent agreed to a deal that provides funding to January 30, 2026, along with a package of three individual FY26 funding bills. The group also secured a Senate vote to extend expiring health care subsidies.
Continuing Resolution: The stopgap measure reopens the government and provides funding to keep it operating until January 30, 2026.
Minibus Appropriations: The short-term continuing resolution is paired with a package of three bipartisan spending bills that provide full fiscal year funding for: 1) the Department of Agriculture and FDA; 2) the legislative branch; 3) the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction projects. The appropriations committees are now focused on advancing some of the other remaining spending bills, and we expect the FY26 DOT/FAA appropriations bill to be in the mix.
ACA Fix: Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) agreed to hold a separate vote no later than mid-December on extending expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies. However, the CR does not include a guaranteed one-year extension of the health care subsidies as Democrats demanded. And it is unclear if a separate vote will take place in the House.
Federal Employee Protections: The agreement calls for rehiring federal workers that had been subject to reductions in force (RIFs) during the shutdown and includes “protections” against future RIFs.
Other Aviation-Related Items
Essential Air Service: The measure provides funding for the Essential Air Service program through the duration of the CR. Late last month, DOT announced that it had secured funding to keep the program operating until November 18.
Counter UAS: It extends the authorization for the counter-unmanned aerial systems program for the duration of the CR.
Reimbursement of Screening Services. The stop-gap measure also extends the authorization for TSA’s reimbursable screening services for the duration of the CR.