President Donald Trump on Sunday addressed the nationwide ground stop that disrupted airline travel starting Friday afternoon, posting on social media to urge Congress to approve additional money for a full overhaul of the air traffic control system. The president had not commented publicly on the outage since it began, instead posting about other topics while passengers were stranded and federal officials worked with airlines to restore operations.
Trump wrote that his administration has started upgrading the system but said the work should not be done in "drips and drabs." He added, "If Congress approves the desperately needed money for Air Traffic Control, we can get it built quickly and efficiently. It will be the BEST SYSTEM anywhere in the World. Much of our current air control system is 50 years old – RIDICULOUS!" He also blamed the previous administration, accusing former President Joe Biden of making an "old and broken system worse than when they began."
Biden signed an infrastructure bill in his first year that allocated $25 billion for the FAA to improve airports, towers, and the air traffic control foundation. Last year, the Republican-controlled Congress approved $12.5 billion for the FAA as part of a tax package, but Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has called that a down payment on a broader overhaul.
Duffy appeared on Sunday news programs to press for billions more in upgrades. He said the outage began when contractor L3Harris Technologies was replacing old copper wire with fiber at a facility in El Dorado, Arkansas, causing a system overload that cascaded to a site in Amarillo, Texas. Duffy said L3Harris has secured two routers from the affected facilities for "deep diagnostics." He told CBS' "Face the Nation" that delays remain but the system should reach full capacity by Monday.
Sources: 8 News Now
Original reporting: 8 News Now →
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