Two key lawmakers want the government to investigate whether airlines used federal pandemic-relief money to encourage employees to quit.
FILE - A traveler walks in Terminal 3 as a sign stating face coverings are required is displayed at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Friday, July 2, 2021. . The lawmakers said Friday, Sept. 9, 2022 that taxpayers helped the airline industry during their darkest days at the start of the pandemic, and they deserve to know how the money was spent. used any of the $54 billion they received in government pandemic relief to pay employees to quit.
After air travel plunged in early 2020, airlines offered incentives that encouraged thousands of workers to quit or take long-term leaves of absence. The airlines were caught understaffed when travel bounced back strongly this spring and summer. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., chairwoman of the House Oversight Committee, and Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., chairman of a special panel on the government’s response to the pandemic, requested the investigation.