Airport Alert: Senate Working to OK Government Funding Bills
January 30, 2026
As we reported previously, the House last week passed the final four FY26 funding bills – including DOT/FAA, DHS/TSA/CBP, Defense, and Labor-HHS – and packaged them together with two other previously approved measures for the Senate to consider this week. As a reminder, these are the final six FY26 spending bills for the federal government; the other spending bills have previously been passed into law.
The plan was for the Senate to approve the final, House-passed six-bill package this week prior to the January 30 deadline on which federal funding expires under the continuing resolution approved in November. Unfortunately, events over the past weekend in Minnesota scuttled that plan as Senate Democrats balked at providing funding to DHS and its component agencies without reforms to ICE’s operations. As you recall from the previous shutdown, Democratic support is needed in the Senate to reach the required 60 vote threshold to pass most legislation.
Over the past few days, Senate leaders and the White House have been scrambling to come up with a plan to allow for the five non-DHS funding bills to be passed and to address DHS funding separately. It appears like they finally have had success in that regard. In the hours ahead, we expect that the Senate will vote to approve the five-bill package, including the DOT/FAA spending measure, while giving DHS two additional weeks of funding, which will allow more time to negotiate changes to ICE tactics that Democrats insist on.
While this is positive movement, the changes in the Senate necessitate a vote in the House. House lawmakers have not been in session this week and will not return until Monday. In the meantime, federal funding will expire at midnight tonight, leading to a temporary shutdown over the weekend until the House can return for a vote early next week.
The practical impacts of the shutdown will be minor if the House approves the five-bill package and oks temporary funding for DHS early next week. The five-bill package, including DOT/FAA funding, has broad support, but approval of temporary funding for DHS will likely be controversial in the House.
Our understanding is that air traffic controllers are next scheduled to be paid on February 3 and should receive a full paycheck. The next pay date for controllers is February 17, and a shutdown beyond a few days would lead to a partial payment on that date and no payment on March 3. The next pay date for DHS employees, including TSOs, is February 5 and will be a full paycheck. If a lengthy shutdown occurs, the next paycheck on February 18 would be significantly impacted.
Bottom line: we are in for a partial shutdown beginning tonight, but the immediate impacts should be small. AAAE and our industry partners are pressing for passage of both the five-bill package and the DHS continuing resolution as soon as possible to avoid disruptions to the aviation system.
Stay tuned for further updates.
