Congressional Democrats announced plans to investigate the FAA nationwide ground stop when they take the majority in January, while outgoing House Speaker Mike Johnson said no investigation was necessary and backed Duffy's $50 billion infrastructure funding request.
The FAA issued a rare nationwide ground stop Friday afternoon due to communications failures at air traffic control centers, canceling nearly 5,000 flights before lifting the order around 8:15 PM ET. Officials attributed the outage to aging analog telecommunications equipment and ruled out a cyberattack.
Following the nationwide ground stop, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin called on Congress to approve $50 billion to modernize the nation's aging air traffic control system, up from an earlier request of $30.1 billion. The White House had previously urged $30.1 billion before the crisis.
