Cruel Irony
The twist in this is it comes from the good senators from Missouri. No doubt a reaction from the AA/TWA merger. APA was against it of course (not surprisingly).
On the other hand it's believed that the USAir and American West merger arbitration results will be the template for future integrations. In that case the furloughed USAir pilots were placed at the bottom of the list because the arbitrator didn't "see" them as employees.
If AA mergers with another airline tomorrow and the integration goes to arbitration, it could be all the TWA pilots still on furlough could get stapled...
again.
It would be an unfortunate outcome from an otherwise well meaning piece of legislation.