U.S. Transportation Secretary Calls on Congress to Allocate $50 Billion for Upgrading Air Traffic Control System

On November 13, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy held a press conference at the White House, stating that the nationwide flight cancellations at airports were caused by a telecommunications failure, and there is no need for public panic. Duffy indicated that there was no complete disruption of communication or radar systems during the grounding, and the failure stemmed from issues with the outdated network system. He urged Congress to provide $50 billion in emergency funding for the upgrade of the air traffic control system. Mayorkas added that this incident was unrelated to Microsoft service application failures, and no evidence of cyberattacks or artificial intelligence interference has been found. Related handling work is still ongoing, and he pointed out that the aging systems and data overload pose national security risks.