President Trump: Congress Must Approve 'Desperately Needed Money' to Update Air Traffic Control System

President Donald Trump is urging Congress to approve funds to update the nation’s Air Traffic Control system after the nationwide ground stop on Friday. “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!” the president wrote in a post on his Truth Social. “We have already started the work, but it should be done all at once, not in drips and drabs. Congress must approve. The Biden Administration set it back years! President DJT,” he concluded: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded all U.S. flights on Friday after an issue with air traffic control centers, Breitbart News reported. The FAA’s alert said the action was “DUE TO EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES AND FOR REASONS OF SAFETY.” Hours later, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy provided an update, explaining the “routers actually got overloaded with data” to the point where they were getting “inconsistency in the data” from the routers, per Breitbart News. Several hours later, the FAA lifted the nationwide ground stop. RELATED: Secretary Duffy — More Air Traffic Control Outages Coming Unless We Get Money to Fix the Problem In an update early Saturday, Duffy said “Operations are slowly returning to normal this morning. Planes are pushing back, taxiing, and taking off, and it is safe to fly. We are in close coordination with the airlines to support the ongoing recovery.” “You will continue to see some delays and cancellations as carriers reschedule flights and reposition aircraft/crews where they are needed most. Our top priority right now is making sure travelers get home safely to their families as quickly as possible. To our air traffic controllers, pilots, and flight crews who are working around the clock: the nation thanks you for your professionalism and dedication to the flying public,” he stated: He later explained how the agency used funds from Congress and the path forward to avoid another nationwide ground stop. “Congress gave us $12.5 billion and this is how we used it: new radios, new radars, electronic flight strips, and modern telecom lines. Every cent is accounted for, and every piece of equipment will be in place by the end of 2028. HERE’S THE CATCH: Congress locked that money into physical hardware, leaving us without the funds to build the core software that makes the system run. Congress will be a vital partner in funding the rest of this build so we can modernize our airspace and make sure Friday never happens again,” Duffy wrote in the social media post: Duffy on Sunday also said officials “must modernize” the network. “We have the safest air system in the world. When we saw telecom and radar inconsistencies on Friday, we took extraordinary action to protect you, issuing a ground stop and safely landing over 3,500 planes. Our mission is always getting you home safely,” he stated: “Two things can be true at once: we will keep you safe today, and we must modernize an aging network that has been neglected for decades so it stays resilient for the future,” Duffy added.