Key facts
- Duffy said the administration needs $50 billion to replace hardware and software in use since the 1980s.
- Mullin said the system needs one complete build rather than piecemeal work: "We need one complete system."
- The officials said they have seen no evidence of a cyberattack or AI-linked failure and are still investigating the cause.
- Duffy urged the public to press senators and members of Congress to fund the replacement.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said at a press conference on the evening of November 13, 2026 that Congress needs to approve $50 billion to replace aging aviation communications technology. Duffy said the administration needs the money to replace hardware and software that has been in use since the 1980s and can no longer handle the volume of data moving through it.
The request followed a Federal Aviation Administration ground stop on November 13, 2026, ordered as a safety precaution while aircraft already in the air continued toward their destinations or were diverted as needed. The agency lifted the ground stop around 8:15 pm ET, and 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.
Duffy said the public should press senators and members of Congress, saying: "We should talk to our senators and our members of Congress to say 'we don't deserve this, America.'" He added: "How many times does this have to happen before Congress gives the money to fix it?" Mullin said the system needs a single complete build: "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."
The officials said they have seen no evidence that the failure was caused by a cyberattack or by system failures linked to artificial intelligence, and said they are still investigating the precise cause of the outage.