Congress moves to overhaul air traffic control with $12.5B in funding

The Senate passed a sweeping budget reconciliation bill with billions of dollars to fix the air traffic control system. President Donald Trump is expected to sign the budget proposal, which he calls the “big beautiful bill.” An earlier version of the legislation, which had previously passed the House, still needs to be reaffirmed by the lower chamber after the Senate’s updates.

While the contentious legislation contains many spending cuts, it also provides $12.5 billion to fund upgrades to the nation’s air traffic control system.

“We are grateful that the Senate understands the urgent need to overhaul our nation’s air traffic control (ATC) system and included $12.5 billion in their reconciliation package for that cause. This is an important first step as Secretary Duffy works to implement President Trump’s vision of a brand new, state-of-the-art system,” Airlines for America, an industry lobbying group, said in a statement when the legislation cleared the Senate.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy proposed a major overhaul of air traffic control technology in May in response to ongoing issues at Newark Liberty International Airport.

Controllers there had experienced a series of radar and radio outages, which prompted some to take trauma leave and the Federal Aviation Administration to reduce the number of flights at the airport.

Duffy has repeatedly called on Congress to fund the improvements outside of the FAA’s normal five-year funding cycle, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act provides billions of dollars for air traffic control modernization projects.

“This funding is a vital down payment on updating the system that guides 27,000 flights, 2.7 million passengers and 61,000 tons of cargo every day,” Airlines for America said in a previous statement after the House passed its initial version of the legislation.

The Senate version of the legislation called for closing and consolidating some air traffic control facilities, which could help boost efficiency as the system is modernized, but may also lead to political infighting as members of Congress try to preserve jobs in their districts as facilities are identified for closure.

Zach Wichter is a travel reporter and writes the Cruising Altitude column for USA TODAY. He is based in New York and you can reach him at zwichter@usatoday.com.