Trump's transportation chief demands $50 billion to prevent another huge FAA fiasco

US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said that Congress needs to Homeland Security $50 billion to fix the matter at the root. Alex Wong/Getty Images The Department of Homeland Security says it wants $50 billion to replace aging technology that led to Friday's ground stop.In a press conference on Friday evening, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that the US has "old switches, old routers" that became overloaded with data and failed, disrupting communications at multiple air-route traffic-control centers."We should talk to our senators and our members of Congress to say 'we don't deserve this, America,'" Duffy said. "This is the greatest country — by the way, with the greatest president — let's give the money to fix this very real problem.""How many times does this have to happen before Congress gives the money to fix it?" Duffy added. During the press conference, Duffy repeatedly said the administration needs $50 billion to replace the hardware and software that has been around since the 1980s. He added that the system can no longer handle the volume of data moving through it."We need one complete system. We need someone to come in and build the whole system. Doing it — nickel-and-diming it together — does not work. This is what happens when that takes place," Mullin said.On Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration halted departures across the US as a safety precaution, while aircraft already in the air continued toward their destinations or were diverted as needed.The ground stop was lifted around 8:15 pm ET on Friday, but the disruption left airlines scrambling to reposition planes and crews. Roughly 10,000 flights were delayed and nearly 5,000 canceled, according to Business Insider's count.The officials said they have seen no evidence that the failure was caused by a cyberattack or system failures linked to artificial intelligence, but added that they are still investigating the precise cause of the outage. This is a developing story. Check back for updates. Read next Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Shuby is a senior reporter at Business Insider's Singapore bureau, where she writes about tech, with a focus on AI training and vibe-coding startups.She previously interned for Bloomberg News and CNBC. She studied communications and business at the National University of Singapore. In 2026, she won the Singapore Press Club Tech Journalism Award for her work on the hidden human cost of Meta's chatbot training program and an exposé on the black market for AI gig-work accounts.Have a tip? Contact her via email at sgoel@insider.com or on secure messaging app Signal at @shuby.85. We can keep sources anonymous. FAA Aviation air travel More Donald Trump