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Keep America Flying Act of 2026
Making continuing appropriations for essential Federal Aviation Administration and Transportation Security Administration pay and operations in the event of a Federal Government shutdown, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill provides emergency appropriations to pay and support critical Federal Aviation Administration and Transportation Security Administration personnel during a government shutdown. The bill ensures that FAA air traffic controllers, TSA screening personnel, and other essential aviation security staff continue to receive pay and benefits, along with payments to contractors supporting these operations. The appropriations remain in effect until Congress enacts a regular or continuing appropriation or until September 30, 2026. The bill has a retroactive effective date of September 30, 2025.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
- Rep. James, John [R-MI-10] (R-MI)
1 cosponsor
Actions (2)
- Oct 28, 2025 Referred to the House Committee on Appropriations. · house
- Oct 28, 2025 Introduced in House
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Text versions (1)
Bills are re-published as they move (Introduced → Reported → Engrossed → Enrolled …). Each stage below is a separate text; pick two to see what changed. Data from Congress.gov.
Full text
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
October 28, 2025
Mr. James introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Appropriations
A BILL
Making continuing appropriations for essential Federal Aviation Administration and Transportation Security Administration pay and operations in the event of a Federal Government shutdown, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Keep America Flying Act of 2026”.
SEC. 2. CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS FOR AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS AND TRANSPORTATION SECURITY PERSONNEL.
(a) In General.—There are hereby appropriated for fiscal year 2026, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the period beginning October 1, 2025, during which interim or full-year appropriations for fiscal year 2026 are not in effect—
(1) such sums as are necessary to provide standard rates of pay, allowances, pay differentials, benefits, and other payments otherwise payable on a regular basis to air traffic controllers and other essential operational personnel of the Federal Aviation Administration whose services are required for the safe and orderly operation of the national airspace system;
(2) such sums as are necessary to provide standard rates of pay, allowances, pay differentials, benefits, and other payments otherwise payable on a regular basis to employees of the Transportation Security Administration engaged in screening operations, aviation security duties, or related mission- support functions necessary to carry out security screening under chapter 449 of title 49, United States Code;
(3) such sums as are necessary to provide for payments to contractors of the Federal Aviation Administration whom the Secretary of Transportation determines are providing support to the personnel described in paragraph (1); and
(4) such sums as are necessary to provide for payments to contractors of the Transportation Security Administration whom the Administrator or Acting Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration determines are providing support to the personnel described in paragraph (2).
(b) Charge to Future Appropriations.—Expenditures made pursuant to subsection (a) shall be charged to the applicable appropriation, fund, or authorization whenever an Act in which such applicable appropriation, fund, or authorization is included is enacted into law.
SEC. 3. TERMINATION.
Appropriations and funds made available and authority granted pursuant to this Act shall be available until whichever of the following first occurs:
(1) The enactment into law of an appropriation (including a continuing appropriation) for any purpose for which amounts are made available in section 2.
(2) The enactment into law of the applicable regular or continuing appropriations resolution or other Act without any appropriation for such purpose.
(3) September 30, 2026.
SEC. 4. RETROACTIVE EFFECTIVE DATE.
This Act shall take effect as if enacted on September 30, 2025. <all>
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