Federal Aviation Administration officials are warning lawmakers that the $12.5 billion Congress approved last year to begin modernizing the nation’s air traffic control system will not be enough to fix deep structural flaws embedded across U.S. aviation infrastructure.
Testifying before the House in mid-December, FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said the agency will need an additional $20 billion to fully rebuild systems he described as outdated, inefficient, and increasingly unsustainable.
“It’s one of the worst-kept secrets in government that the facilities the FAA operates in today are grossly archaic, obsolete, and relatively unsustainable,” Bedford told lawmakers. He noted that most of the roughly $4 billion Congress provides annually for modernization is spent maintaining legacy systems rather than replacing them outright. “Literally, we’re putting lipstick on a pig.”
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Technology failures inside the FAA have dominated headlines over the past year, including reports that the agency still relies on floppy disks and decades-old software in some facilities. A September 2024 report from the Government Accountability Office found that more than 100 of the FAA’s 138 air traffic control systems were inadequate or unsustainable, with upgrades for many not expected to be completed for another decade or longer.
Congress approved the initial $12.5 billion as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill earlier this year, funding the first phase of a sweeping modernization effort announced by the Trump administration in May. FAA officials have repeatedly described the funding as a down payment rather than a comprehensive solution.
When the agency announced in December that it had selected Peraton to serve as the prime integrator for the project, the FAA again warned that total costs would exceed current funding levels. The overhaul is expected to take roughly three years and spans five major categories: communications, surveillance, automation, facilities, and systemwide upgrades across Alaska.
Bedford told lawmakers that even after the initial funding is fully spent, core architectural problems would remain unless Congress follows through with a second tranche.
“Even after we’ve fully utilized this initial $12.5 billion down payment, there are still going to be fundamental problems with the architecture of the systems that need to be addressed,” Bedford said. “If we were to stop there, the future would be a more reliable but still inefficient national airspace system.”
Momentum for the funding request is building on Capitol Hill. During a December 20 hearing before the Senate’s aviation subcommittee, Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), the panel’s ranking Democrat, voiced support for at least $20 billion in additional funding, while noting years of failed modernization efforts have left lawmakers wary.
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“There’s no debate that our aging air traffic control system is in desperate need of urgent repairs and ultimately a comprehensive upgrade,” Duckworth said. “$12.5 billion is a meaningful down payment, but it is not nearly enough.”
Duckworth cited a bipartisan history of unsuccessful modernization efforts, including the abandoned Advanced Automation System and the long-running NextGen initiative, a multibillion-dollar effort launched in the early 2000s to shift air traffic control from radar-based systems to satellite-enabled technology that has spanned four presidential administrations. Still, she argued that withholding funding would only guarantee continued decline in safety and reliability.
Duckworth urged the FAA to prioritize investments that deliver immediate and lasting safety benefits, even if Congress ultimately fails to provide additional funding, and to rely more heavily on input from frontline air traffic controllers and technicians when setting priorities. She also pressed the agency to treat staffing as a central part of modernization, noting that the FAA hired only about two-thirds of the controllers called for under its own staffing model between 2013 and 2023 and remains short roughly 3,500 controllers as air travel reaches record highs.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has reinforced the funding push publicly, warning that rising passenger volumes and new aircraft technologies will further strain the system if modernization stalls.
“We got $12.5 billion to start the process,” Duffy said back in November. “We need another $19 to $20 billion to complete it.”
The renewed funding debate comes amid heightened scrutiny of aviation safety following a January midair collision near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport that killed 67 people, as well as a series of communications outages, near misses, and staffing-driven delays at major airports including Newark.
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FAA officials say the modernization plan includes replacing hundreds of aging radars, upgrading fiber, wireless, and satellite communications, and coordinating tens of thousands of air traffic controllers, technicians, and safety personnel across the country.
Congress has not yet said when it will take up the FAA’s request for additional funding, leaving open questions about cost, oversight, and whether the agency can finally deliver a long-promised overhaul.
