Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said about 800 air traffic controllers who worked during the government shutdown would get $10,000 bonus checks.
Duffy said in an X post on Thursday night, “Santa’s coming to town a little early.”
“776 patriotic men and women will get $10K checks, just in time for Christmas,” he added, specifying that the checks would go to rewarding people “for showing up to work EVERY DAY.”
The video accompanying Duffy’s post included a clip from the 2003 movie “Elf,” as well as a clip of President Donald Trump saying air traffic controllers who worked without pay during the shutdown should be rewarded.
Duffy also said in the video that the checks would land in early December.
The 43-day government shutdown, the longest in US history, saw more than 13,000 air traffic controllers across the country working without pay, per a shutdown plan by the department on September 30.
Representatives for the department did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Duffy’s announcement follows a similar one last week by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
On November 13, Noem said Transportation Security Administration officers who worked during the shutdown would get $10,000 bonus checks. She did not specify how many TSA officers would get these checks.
On November 11, Duffy said the department may penalize controllers who called in sick during the shutdown before missing their first paycheck.
“My concern is, for those air traffic controllers who, before they missed a paycheck, and were in the shutdown, they decided on a continual basis not to show up for work,” Duffy said to reporters in Chicago last week, and said he questioned their “dedication” and “patriotism.”
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association union told the Associated Press in a statement on Thursday that only 311 of its more than 10,000 members would receive the checks.
“We are concerned that thousands of air traffic controllers who consistently reported for duty during the shutdown, ensuring the safe transport of passengers and cargo across the nation, while working without pay and uncertain of when they would receive compensation, were excluded from this recognition,” the union told the AP.
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