The Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, says he will send Congress a detailed funding request on Monday 16 November, setting out his $50 billion ask for air traffic control. At a press conference on Saturday 14 November he said the money would cover towers, runways and other upgrades, Yahoo News reports.
Yahoo News also reports that Bedford said finishing the current modernisation would take about $10.1 billion more. That figure has not been independently checked. Duffy is seeking well above that sum.
Duffy called the $12.5 billion Congress approved last year "a partial payment". Axios dates that award to July 2025, for upgrades running into 2030, so his account of when it was granted holds up.
Axios reports that Duffy had previously said $30 billion was needed and raised the request to $50 billion after Friday's outage. That fits his remark on Friday that President Trump had asked Congress for $30 billion.
"I've been talking about this for almost two years, and I've been asking the Congress for money"
He added, according to Axios: "For me, it gets to be frustrating where everyone says they want to do it, and the president is pushing it, but we don't get the resources."