Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says $12.5bn for air safety upgrades isn’t nearly enough: ‘We need it now’

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned Wednesday that his department is in dire need of funding for air safety upgrades mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Duffy insisted the FAA allocation in the spending package recently approved by the House of Representatives is not enough.

“They put $12.5 billion into the ‘big, beautiful bill’ that’s going to go towards this infrastructure project. That won’t be enough,” the secretary said at a press conference.

“I know the Senate is going to look, can they find money to put into this bill, but we are going to need them to fully fund this project,” he urgently added.

The secretary also spoke about improving Newark Liberty International Airport following significant delays and cancellations that led to chaos in the midst of outages and a shortage of air traffic controllers.

Duffy clashed with Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency earlier this year as they targeted for cuts already inadequate numbers of air traffic controllers. They were offered buyout letters the day before the deadly air crash at Reagan National Airport that killed 67 people. Musk later pleaded with retired controllers to return to work.

Investigations into aviation accidents have followed a series of fatal air crashes and communication failures.

On several occasions, Duffy has argued that understaffing and outdated technology are behind the recent rash of incidents, and that significant funding is needed.

“We need it all up front. That’s a big ask for the Congress to give us the money all up front. That is necessary if we’re going to be successful at this project,” he said. “And again, you can’t make us go through years of permits for laying new fiber. We need it now.”

Duff added: “I think Democrats and Republicans are going to agree that, yes, with certain guardrails around giving you relief on permitting, and giving you the money up front with those guardrails, I think they’re going to buy into that idea.”

President Donald Trump has stated that he supports an overhaul of the U.S. aviation sector, as well as a restructuring of the requirements for air traffic controllers.

Duffy said he hopes to install new equipment, including new telecom, radar, and radio systems, as well as updates to the front and back ends of the operations.

Earlier this month, Duffy outlined a plan to recruit and retain air traffic controllers, which includes retirement incentives for eligible employees to remain in their posts longer as policies change.