Illinois Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin sent FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford a letter Friday urging him to approve the remaining 2.8% of a congressionally authorized pay increase for air traffic controllers. Congress set aside $140 million in April for a 3.8% raise, although controllers have so far received only the 1% increase given to federal government employees.
The legislation made the additional increase contingent on Bedford determining that improvements have been achieved in workforce scheduling, staffing utilization or other operational efficiencies that help address staffing shortages and improve aviation safety. The law leaves that determination to the FAA administrator’s sole discretion, while Duckworth and Durbin argued in their letter that the requirements are “not a high bar.”
Senators Push Back On Utilization
“Squeezing more ‘utilization’ out of air traffic controllers who have been understaffed, underpaid and overworked for years will weaken retention and undermine aviation safety,” the senators wrote in the letter obtained by CBS News.
The dispute follows the release of the FAA’s 2026-2028 Controller Workforce Plan, which identifies controller scheduling as an opportunity for improving operational performance. The plan says controllers averaged about four hours of time on position during an eight-hour shift and estimates modern scheduling tools could raise that figure above five hours.
The FAA also acknowledged that mandatory overtime reached levels from fiscal 2023 through 2025 that exceeded what it considers reasonable and can contribute to fatigue, burnout and retention problems.
Bedford said the FAA wants to work with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association on scheduling and workforce utilization and indicated that an agreement could allow the remaining raise to take effect this year.
“We talk about all the things that we feel like we need to do to unlock more productivity,” Bedford told the Washington Examiner last month.
FAA, NATCA Respond
The FAA told CBS News that Congress conditioned the raise on the administrator determining that qualifying operational improvements had been achieved. The agency said it plans to work with NATCA to review existing scheduling practices and identify changes intended to improve productivity, safety and controller quality of life.
“We continue to advocate for meaningful improvements for controllers, including the pay parity wage increase passed by Congress, through ongoing engagement with the FAA,” NATCA said.
Duckworth and Durbin concluded their letter by calling on Bedford to “expeditiously approve the pay increase.” The FAA has not announced when it expects to make a determination on the additional 2.8%.
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