Duffy Calls on Congress to Fund Air Traffic Control Upgrades After Ground Stop
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy's public request for congressional appropriations highlights a long-documented gap between FAA infrastructure needs and available funding, putting the issue...
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called on Congress Friday evening to appropriate funds to upgrade the nation's air traffic control system, speaking from the White House after the Federal Aviation Administration lifted a four-hour nationwide ground stop, according to a CBS News report published November 13, 2026.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, also present at the White House briefing, described the event as a telecommunications outage. Neither Mullin nor Duffy provided a specific hardware or software failure point in Friday's briefing. The document that would name the precise failure is an FAA incident report, which had not been publicly released as of this publication.
Duffy said during the briefing that it would take "some time" for air travel to return to normal even after the ground stop was lifted. Airlines issued waivers allowing affected passengers to rebook without fees, and federal regulations under 14 CFR Part 250 entitle travelers to full cash refunds for flights that are canceled by the carrier, regardless of cause, according to the Department of Transportation's passenger rights guidelines.
The ground stop lasted approximately four hours, beginning before 4:30 p.m. ET and ending shortly after 8:30 p.m. ET on Friday, November 13, according to the New York Post's reporting on the event. That duration exceeded the January 2023 NOTAM system outage, which grounded flights for approximately 90 minutes before operations resumed.
Duffy's call for congressional action places the funding request before a House of Representatives now projected to be controlled by Democrats following the 2026 midterm elections, as reported by The Congressional Times in its coverage of the House outcome. The specific dollar figure Duffy is requesting, and whether a formal appropriations request or supplemental spending bill has been drafted, was not disclosed at the Friday briefing. A formal budget request to Congress would appear in an Office of Management and Budget submission or a Transportation Department appropriations justification document.
The FAA's air traffic control infrastructure has been the subject of repeated Government Accountability Office reports citing aging equipment. The GAO's 2023 High-Risk List, published February 2023, included FAA's ATC modernization among programs at risk due to cost overruns and schedule delays. The FAA's NextGen modernization program, intended to shift ATC from radar-based to satellite-based navigation, has been in progress since 2007 and has faced documented delays according to GAO report GAO-23-105423.
Congress last addressed FAA reauthorization through the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, signed into law May 10, 2024 (Public Law 118-63), which authorized FAA programs through fiscal year 2028. That law included provisions directing the FAA to submit workforce and infrastructure plans to Congress, but authorization levels and actual appropriated amounts can differ. The specific amount appropriated for ATC infrastructure in the most recent Transportation, Housing and Urban Development appropriations act would appear in the relevant division of the consolidated appropriations legislation.
Friday's outage had measurable effects beyond commercial aviation. A men's basketball game between Cornell University and UNC Greensboro, scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday at Newman Arena, was postponed after UNCG's travel was disrupted, according to a report from the New York Post. The postponement illustrates downstream economic and logistical effects that extend beyond airline passengers to institutions reliant on commercial air travel schedules.
Duffy's public appeal for funding does not constitute a formal legislative proposal. The sequence of steps required before Congress could act includes a formal budget request from the administration, committee markup in both the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Senate Commerce Committee, floor votes in both chambers, and presidential signature. The timeline for any such action is unknown. The first document confirming a formal request would be an OMB transmission letter or a supplemental appropriations bill introduced in either chamber.
What remains unknown: the precise technical cause of Friday's telecommunications outage, the total number of flights affected and passengers stranded, the specific funding figure the administration intends to request, and whether any legislation has been drafted. The FAA incident report, once released, would address the technical cause. A formal OMB or agency budget justification document would reveal the requested appropriation amount.