Several major airlines back GOP push for ‘clean’ funding bill as shutdown drags on

Some of the nation’s top airlines are calling on Congress to end the government shutdown and pay air traffic controllers, joining Republican lawmakers in pressing Democrats to vote with the GOP for a “clean continuing resolution” (CR) and reopen the government.

Speaking outside the White House Oct. 30, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said lawmakers need to “get into a room behind closed doors and negotiate hard on real substantive issues that the American people want our politicians on both sides of the aisle to solve.” 

“Let’s get a clean CR and get that negotiation done behind closed doors without putting the American workers and the American economy at risk,” Kirby added.

Air traffic controllers missed their first full paychecks Oct. 28, as CatholicVote previously reported. The Senate has now failed 13 times to advance a measure to end the shutdown, which has stretched into its fourth week. In the most recent vote, which took place Oct. 28, lawmakers fell six votes short, 54-45. 

American Airlines also released a statement Oct. 30 urging lawmakers to act, and praising Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and the aviation employees who are still on the job despite going unpaid.

“It’s unacceptable that these public servants are working without pay. Congress needs to reach a bipartisan agreement to reopen the government as quickly as possible to pay our air traffic controllers, TSA, and CBP colleagues,” the statement read. “The quickest way to end this shutdown and get these workers paid is by passing a clean continuing resolution (CR).”

Delta Air Lines made a similar appeal, imploring Congress “to immediately pass a clean continuing resolution to reopen the government,” according to Reuters reporter David Shepardson. 

Vice President JD Vance and Duffy hosted a roundtable at the White House Oct. 30 with the lobby group Airlines for America, whose members include Delta, United, and American Airlines. Hours later, the White House posted a video featuring air traffic controllers, pilot associations, and airline leaders urging passage of the GOP-backed bill.

While the carriers avoided naming a political party in their statements, their calls echoed Republican leaders who have repeatedly pressed Democrats to support the House-passed GOP proposal, which would reopen the government at current funding levels through Nov. 21. 

Senate Democrats have rejected the measure, originally insisting on a broader spending package that the White House says would dedicate roughly $200 billion over the next decade to provide healthcare for illegal immigrants and non-citizens. They say they’ll negotiate once Republicans are ready to address healthcare funding. 

While speaking to reporters Oct. 30, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said he would not support the clean CR, dismissing it as a “partisan Republican spending bill.” 

“Is it your suggestion that the partisan Republican spending bill that has now been voted down by the Senate 13 different times, that guts the health care of the American people is a so-called clean continuing resolution?” Jeffries said to a Daily Caller News Foundation reporter.

The New York Times has previously called Jeffries’ characterization of the bill a misuse of budget jargon. In a Sept. 30 report, the outlet noted that a “clean CR” refers to a measure that maintains current spending levels without policy changes.

The Times noted that Democrats themselves supported a similar measure earlier this year: “Left unsaid: Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader in the other chamber, and eight other Senate Democrats voted for the March bill.”

Chris Towner, policy director of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said that the “House C.R. is just about as clean of a C.R. as you could get. They really did seem to not want to rock the boat with it.”

According to ABC News, the Senate is now adjourned until the afternoon of Nov. 3, when the shutdown will enter its 34th day. 

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