White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on Tuesday called on Speaker Nancy Pelosi to pass legislation providing aid to the airline industry to keep thousands of industry workers from losing their jobs at the end of the month.
“I think the prudent thing for Speaker Pelosi to do would be to put a package on the floor that actually addresses that,” he told Fox Business.
Meadows met with airline executives last Thursday as they engaged in a last-ditch effort to get more aid for their industry before they are forced to lay off workers next week.
“Without action, [workers] are going to be furloughed on Oct. 1, and it’s not fair,” Doug Parker, CEO of American Airlines, told reporters after the meeting.
The CARES Act enacted in March provided the airline industry $25 billion in aid as long as no workers are furloughed before Oct. 1. With that deadline less than one week away and additional funding needed, roughly 35,000 airline jobs are currently at risk.
The airline executives asked Meadows for an additional $25 billion in aid, which would be expected to keep workers employed through March 2021.
“If we can address that, I think what you’ll see are tens of thousands of airline workers that actually get to keep their job. And so, it — it’s really on the desk of Speaker Pelosi,” Meadows said Tuesday.
President Trump supports providing the aid to the airlines, as do members from both parties. House Democrats in May passed legislation prohibiting airlines from engaging in involuntary furloughs on Sept. 30. The bill died in the Senate.
Pelosi, a Democrat from California, spoke with airline executives last Friday. According to participants in the meeting, she supports providing relief to the airlines.
Since the pandemic hit the nation, the airline industry has suffered financially, as people are fearful of infection. The number of travelers going through Transportation Security Administration checkpoints is down by roughly three-quarters.
Still, standalone bills are difficult. Congress has remained at a stalemate on broader additional pandemic relief legislation.
