{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://james.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=1272", "James Proposes Law to Ensure TSA and FAA Pay During Government Shutdown", "2025-10-29", "2025", "2025-10", "Republican", "House", "MI", "John James", "J000307", "james.house.gov", "james", "https://james.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Representative John James (MI-10) introduced the Keep America Flying Act to the U.S. House of Representatives. This legislation would provide back and ongoing pay for essential Federal Aviation Administration and Transportation Security Administration employees during the current government shutdown. James\u2019 bill is the House companion bill to Senator Ted Cruz\u2019s (R-TX) Keep America Flying Act.\n\nSpecifically, the bill would ensure pay and benefits for:\n\nAir traffic controllers and other FAA essential operational personnel whose services are required for the safe and orderly operation of the national airspace system.\n\nTSA employees engaged in screening operations, aviation security duties, or related mission-support functions necessary to carry out security screening.\n\nRep. James released the following statement after introducing the legislation:\n\n\u201cIt has been 40 days since House Republicans voted to keep the government open. Since then, Senate Republicans have voted 13 times to open the government, and Senate Democrats have voted 13 times to keep it shut down. Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats are playing Russian Roulette with other people\u2019s lives for a $1.5 trillion giveaway to greedy insurance companies and taxpayer funded healthcare for illegal immigrants. It\u2019s putting the safety and security of America at risk by keeping the men and women who protect our skies unpaid.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe best way forward for our federal workers and our country is for Democrats to pass the clean continuing resolution that House Republicans and I passed 40 days ago. Their refusal to do the right thing is forcing us to come up with alternative solutions to deliver for the American people. While they are focused on \u2018standing up to Trump,\u2019 I\u2019m focused on standing up for you.\u201d\n\nSen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Chairman of the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation said:\n\n\u201cWe cannot allow Democrats to use our airports as political leverage to try to enact their radical policy agenda. Airport workers are doing their job to keep people safe \u2013 which is more than I can say for Chuck Schumer and the Democrats. This legislation would pay air traffic controllers and TSA agents, along with other essential personnel, during the Schumer shutdown in order to keep our airports orderly and secure.\u201d\n\nAs a former Army pilot, Rep. James understands firsthand the importance of aviation safety and supports the critical work of our FAA and TSA personnel who keep America\u2019s skies secure. His bill comes following disturbing rhetoric from numerous Democrats regarding the government shutdown:\n\nA Democratic aide said that Democrats will not concede the shutdown short of \u201cplanes falling out of the sky.\u201d\n\nHouse Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA) acknowledged the damage the Schumer Shutdown is causing, but noted that Democrats can use it as political leverage: \u201c\u2026of course, there will be families that are going to suffer\u2026But it is one of the few leverage times we have,\u201d\n\nAs federal workers, FAA, TSA, law enforcement, and military families face missed paychecks, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said that \u201cEvery day gets better,\u201d for Democrats during the shutdown.\n\nSenator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said \u201cYou reopen the government, and we lose our leverage\u2026That\u2019s what this whole shutdown is about.\u201d\n\nSome Democrats have grown frustrated with the Democrat decision to shut down the government, including Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) who said that Democrats are \u201clying\u201d about their shutdown strategy: \u201cI\u2019m just uncomfortable lying about the strategy to win and shutting down the government. We\u2019ve never been the party that does that,\u201d\n\nNick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) said, \u201cNATCA\u2019s top legislative priority is to end the shutdown immediately. On Tuesday, October 28, air traffic controllers and other aviation safety professionals represented by NATCA received zero-dollar paychecks. This is unacceptable. NATCA members deserve to be paid for the work they are performing on behalf of the American flying public. We urge members of Congress to vote in favor of the Keep American Flying Act.\u201d\n\nNATCA has endorsed Rep. James\u2019 legislation.\n\nEverett Kelley, National President of The American Federation of Government Employees, urged for the passage of a clean continuing resolution\u2014which House Republicans passed on September 19th\u2014, saying, \u201cit\u2019s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today. No half measures, and no gamesmanship. Put every single federal worker back on the job with full back pay \u2014 today.\u201d\n\nClick here to view the text of the bill.\n\n###", 1, "2026-04-04T05:28:40Z", "2026-04-04T05:30:10Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://james.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=1272"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8824998512864113, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}