Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy took to Fox News Tuesday to shift blame for Monday’s mass flight disruptions onto Congress, which he blamed for not adequately funding his agency.
Thousands of flights were cancelled or delayed Monday after technical issues rattled airports along the East Coast. The disruptions were reported to have been caused by a mistakenly cut fiber optic cable for a backup communications system that air traffic controllers attempted to switch to after a communications circuit that “manages flight traffic” failed in the Philadelphia region.
“We are moving at Trump speed, lightning speed — and safely — to fix all the things that are wrong in our system,” Duffy told Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade.
“The problem I have is I don't have the money to do all the things that I need to do, that America expects me to do, to make sure this crap never happens again! But this is foreseeable — this will not be the last time it happens! Give us the money to fix everything in the system!”
Funding for the Federal Aviation Administration during the second Trump administration has been historically high, with President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act providing the agency with an additional $12.5 billion in appropriations specifically for air traffic control improvements. The FAA received a record $38.5 billion budget in fiscal year 2025, the largest in the agency’s history.
Nevertheless, Duffy insisted his agency was strapped for cash and would be unable to enact the necessary improvements without additional funding from Congress.
“The problem is this is a 40-year-old architecture or design — I need new money to do a whole new design, a new architecture of telecom so it'll never go down,” Duffy said. “These are the requests that I have for Congress.”
"I don't have the money!"
Sean Duffy says Monday's flight disruptions will happen again as his agency doesn't have the cash to fix "the things that are wrong in our system." pic.twitter.com/kwp2Kx7qaa
— Alexander Willis (@ReporterWillis) September 22, 2026