Sean Duffy had been demanding $30 billion to upgrade the air traffic system. After the recent ground stop, he is asking for $50 billion

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has stepped up his push for congressional funding to modernize the country’s air traffic control network. He previously requested $30 billion. Following Friday’s nationwide ground stop, he is now seeking $50 billion, Politico reports. 

The order went out late in the afternoon and spread disruptions to airports nationwide. Passengers faced delays while airlines worked through a growing backlog to restore normal schedules.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin stated Friday that there was “zero evidence” a cyberattack or artificial intelligence issue caused the halt. He noted that officials were still examining those possibilities. Duffy described how facilities routing flights encountered “instability” in radar data and communications with aircraft, which produced inconsistent information between pilots and controllers.

Ongoing equipment failures and the push for more funding

Duffy pointed to the “legacy” air traffic system as the source of the problems and continued pressing for additional resources. “I’ve asked, the president’s asked, for $30 billion. I want $50 billion,” he said.

“What’s more important than having an air traffic control system that actually works? … I want Congress to give us emergency funding. This is bipartisan. This is American. I want $50 billion.” Modernization efforts have also involved a SpaceX team overhauling FAA air traffic control.

Congress had shown limited enthusiasm for further spending before Friday’s events. The FAA had already received $12.5 billion in last year’s GOP megalaw to begin overhauling air traffic control. Earlier that afternoon, the agency issued its second nationwide ground stop in recent years, citing communication issues. In its notice, the FAA said, “Due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety,” the agency ordered that “all airports are ground stopped.”

Mullin was also asked earlier in the day about SMART, the FAA’s new AI-driven tool that had just been expanded nationwide. He replied, “We’re looking at that.” Duffy later said the tool played no role in the failure.

On X, Duffy wrote that the FAA “issued a nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports following a communication issue impacting multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers.” He added, “FAA technicians are investigating the issue.” Those centers handle aircraft traveling between airports at high and mid-altitudes and work to keep planes safely separated.

This outage follows a string of equipment and technology problems that have interrupted FAA operations in recent years. In January 2023, the Notice to Airmen system failed and stopped all U.S. domestic departures after contractor staff accidentally deleted files during a software update. That produced the first major ground stop since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Pilots rely on NOTAMs for updates about changes or obstacles along their routes.

In September, an equipment failure at an FAA facility in Philadelphia disrupted operations across the Northeast, triggering ground stops and lengthy delays at Newark Liberty International, John F. Kennedy International, and LaGuardia.

A primary communications circuit failed and technicians found that the backup fiber-optic line had been cut by a construction crew in New Jersey. Weeks later a similar problem hit Raleigh-Durham International Airport when an FAA contractor severed a fiber-optic line during plumbing work near the tower, causing further delays and cancellations.

Duffy said this week he intends to lobby Congress next week for the billions needed to upgrade the system. The FAA also announced this week that it was expanding SMART to the airspace of all 22 centers nationwide. The agency said the tool would be used “in the airspace of all 22 centers across the country to reduce delays, reduce fuel consumption and improve the travel experience for the flying public.”

Lawmakers have begun seeking explanations. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, the ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee’s aviation subpanel, said she will be “demanding answers from the FAA.” She wrote on X, “The safety of our skies is built on redundancies. Whatever led to the nationwide ground stop will warrant a thorough and complete investigation.”

Senate Commerce Republicans said the episode shows the need to modernize aging systems and argued that work should focus on the facilities hit by the outages. They posted, “The incident highlights the need to prioritize modernizing ARTCCs over other projects.”