Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blames former presidents and Congress for stopping flights | Trump administration

Donald Trump’s administration on Sunday blamed the travel chaos resulting from Friday’s nationwide four-hour flight shutdown on previous presidents as well as a lack of funding from Congress — although one Democratic senator argued that the Trump administration had not properly invested all of the funds already granted to it to implement needed air transportation infrastructure improvements.

“I take responsibility for what was given to me by previous administrations,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told CNN’s Dana Bash, a day after saying botched routine but necessary maintenance by a contractor caused the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ground on Friday, leading to the delay or cancellation of thousands of flights.

Meanwhile, Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland criticized the Trump administration’s handling of existing funds allocated for the improvements Duffy coveted.

“It’s really enriching to hear the secretary point the finger at Congress when Congress has given the administration what it’s asking for,” Van Hollen said separately on CNN’s Bash Sunday morning. “If they need more, they should justify it. I will support what is necessary to have a safe and reliable system.”

Duffy said the congressional funding Van Hollen mentioned — $12.5 billion — was limited in scope and not enough.

“I don’t have money in this $12.5 billion that I could use for new telecommunications architecture,” Duffy said. “I can’t create new software to manage our planes in the airspace, because it’s from the 1990s, but there’s no money for that. There’s no money for towers. Our towers are old.”

Duffy also spent part of the interview with CNN defending Trump, who waited until Sunday to comment on the longest nationwide ground arrest in 25 years.

The president’s comments took the form of social media posts blaming the Biden administration and describing himself as busy “at the White House holding meetings on many issues.” They came after he published an article about what he envisioned as a bipartisan congressional initiative to revitalize the film and television industries.

“Before I was even sworn in, the president who loves airspace was telling me we need to modernize it,” Duffy told Bash. “He’s the first president we’ve had who cares so much about airspace modernization.”

When asked why it took Trump two days to comment on the ground stop, Duffy claimed he was in constant behind-the-scenes contact with the president.

“He was fully engaged because it’s important to him, and it’s important to America,” Duffy said. “The president is fully supportive, fully engaged and fully following what is happening.”

In an article published Sunday on Truth Social, Trump blamed Joe Biden and demanded funding from Congress.

“The Biden administration has been a disaster for the FAA. Everything they have touched has gone wrong,” Trump wrote. “We have the knowledge and plans for flight control systems, we need Congress to provide the money, FAST!”

In another interview Sunday on CBS News’ Face the Nation, Duffy told host Margaret Brennan that the FAA is currently investigating the root cause of the botched maintenance job that triggered the ground shutdown. He said the maintenance involved – replacing telecommunications lines from old copper wires to fiber optic cables – has been carried out “thousands of times” without any problems.

The contractor, L3Harris, is reportedly performing diagnostic testing. Duffy, as he has repeatedly, said there was still no indication of a foreign cyberattack. Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (Pass), the AFL-CIO union representing more than 11,000 FAA workers, said the technicians it represents were not involved in the improvements that led to the ground stop.

“The issue only involved two routers owned and maintained by a contractor that were updated at noon,” the union said in a statement. “Historically, contractors followed a protocol where FAA employees performed a risk assessment and coordinated maintenance of the system or equipment. »

But the union said the technicians represented by Pass were not involved in the improvements made to Friday’s ground control center.

Duffy told Brennan in response to the union’s statement that “this was done appropriately, which, by the way, has been done thousands of times by us, by others, by other companies.”

“That never happened,” Duffy argued. “That’s why when you have a remote location like this, we felt comfortable doing it in the middle of the day because it’s been done thousands of times. We’ve never had this situation. We’re going to have to re-evaluate when we do this work.”

When asked if a risk assessment had been carried out, Duffy did not answer directly. He said: “We do risk assessments on everything. »

Duffy also cited a Government Accountability Office report released in September 2026 that highlighted the need to modernize air traffic control systems.

He was asked about the report, noting that “it could be about prioritizing speed over costs and air traffic disruption” in implementing an effort to modernize air traffic control systems. Duffy said: “As far as speed goes, we’re going, I think…at the right speed. »

Pass also called for progress in upgrading the staff of certified professional technicians at the FAA — and for the union to be fully engaged in efforts to implement what has been dubbed the All-New Air Traffic Control System.

“These employees should receive training on the new equipment and could provide more robust installation and optimization – if the workforce was properly staffed,” the union added.