Trump administration urges lawmakers to invest $19B in air traffic safety

FILE

WASHINGTON — U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has been lobbying lawmakers, so they vote to invest billions more in air traffic safety.

Duffy testified in Congress that the “full project” of upgrading the country’s aging air traffic control system will cost $31.5 billion.

“We can’t wait, you know, 13 years. We need to be doing this now,” Duffy told lawmakers.

Congress has been working on the upcoming budget for the Federal Aviation Administration.

Lawmakers approved $12.5 billion over five years as part of President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” bill to get the work started.

Duffy has been asking lawmakers with urgency to approve $19 billion more. He believes the funding will allow for upgrades to happen in the next three years.

Monica Green is among the passengers of a Delta flight that had a close call with a B-52. She wants the air traffic system fixed.

“I was texting my husband like, ‘Wow! That was a really crazy turn that we just took and we’re we’re kind of just hovering. I don’t know what’s going on,’” Green told CNN.

Tim Arel, the chief executive officer of Integrated Airspace LLC, told CNN that the new tech has to be “dumbed down to talk to the old.”

Nick Daniels, of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said there is also a full-blown staffing crisis. Congress has been working on funding to cover more than 2,000 new traffic controllers.

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About The Author
Andrea Torres

Andrea Torres

The Emmy Award-winning journalist joined the Local 10 News team in 2013. She wrote for the Miami Herald for more than 9 years and won a Green Eyeshade Award.