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By Hollie Silverman
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Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson questioned on Saturday the need for a congressional investigation to establish that the nation’s aging air traffic control system requires more investment, even as he acknowledged that House committees with jurisdiction will likely get involved.
Following Friday's nationwide ground stop, congressional Democrats promised oversight as federal officials continue a separate technical investigation into what caused the disruption.
"I'm sure some of our committees of jurisdiction will be engaged," Johnson said during an interview appearance on Fox News. "Homeland Security is involved in this and other committees as well, but we don't really need any investigation to understand we need further investment."
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Johnson said aging equipment supporting the system needs to be updated and that Congress has a responsibility to provide resources.
“We're going to work to get it done,” he said.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said instability spread to 17 of its 22 Air Route Traffic Control Centers after the network received roughly 1,000 connection attempts every four to five seconds. The incident resulted in approximately 12,462 flight cancellations, including 9,082 by major airlines, though the FAA cautioned that not every cancellation was directly caused by the ground stop.
Meanwhile, the disruption has sparked two overlapping debates in Washington—What caused the failure and how much additional money Congress should provide to modernize the air traffic control system.
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Representatives Rick Larsen, the top Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and André Carson, the top Democrat on its aviation subpanel, have promised oversight, while Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee called for records connected to the incident to be preserved. Democratic Senators Maria Cantwell and Tammy Duckworth have also called for scrutiny of what went wrong.
Johnson and Duffy, meanwhile, emphasized the need for additional funding. Congress previously approved $12.5 billion for air traffic control modernization, which Johnson described on Fox News as a “down payment.”
“This is a very important investment, obviously, for everyone,” Johnson said. “And as Duffy said, it should not be a partisan issue.”
Duffy made a similar argument Sunday on NBC News' Meet the Press, saying the previous funding did not provide all of the money he says is needed for telecommunications and new software.
“The president was able to get $12.5 billion in One Big Beautiful Bill, a historic investment in aviation,” he said. “But the Congress was very specific in how I spend that money.”
President Donald Trump has also pressed Congress for additional money. In a series of Truth Social posts on Sunday, the president blamed the previous administration for problems at the FAA and wrote: “We have the knowledge and plan for the Flight Control Systems, we need Congress to give the money, FAST!”
Latest on L3Harris Investigation
The technical investigation is focused on routers associated with remote FAA facilities in El Dorado, Arkansas, and Amarillo, Texas.
Duffy also said Sunday during an interview appearance on ABC News' This Week that crews were replacing a copper connection with fiber in El Dorado when a newly installed router began broadcasting data across the network. When that equipment was activated, another router installed roughly three weeks earlier in Amarillo also began flooding the system, he said.
A precise root cause has not been established. Investigators are examining whether the failure stemmed from installation or configuration work, the routers themselves, or how the equipment interacted with older network infrastructure.
Duffy said contractor L3Harris secured the two routers from the Texas and Arkansas facilities and brought them to its Florida headquarters for “deep diagnostics testing.” FAA personnel are involved in the review alongside assisting engineers from Juniper and Cisco.
As an immediate precaution, officials disabled a broad data-broadcasting function on similar routers across the national airspace system.
Duffy said officials have found no evidence that a cyberattack or foreign actor caused the disruption, though the FBI and other law enforcement agencies remain involved in the probe.
“No one has seen that or indications that this was a foreign actor or an attack on our network,” he told Meet the Press' Kristen Welker. “We think it was a network issue.”
Duffy also said the administration cannot immediately sever ties with L3Harris because the company owns and operates the communications network the FAA relies on.
“I can't,” he said when asked whether the government would cut ties with the contractor. “And the reason is that L3Harris decades ago got the contract to run and own the network that operates communication for the FAA.”
He said the administration wants to transition to a new communications architecture and is seeking congressional funding to do so.
“I want to get away from L3Harris and get to a new one,” he said. “But they own the network. So, I can't cancel the network that they own and I operate on."
Newsweek reached out to L3Harris by email Sunday for comment.
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What Happens Next
Duffy said he expects U.S. air travel to return to normal by Monday as airlines reposition aircraft and crews.
“We're going to start seeing things get better today, but I think back to normal tomorrow,” the transportation secretary told Welker.
Attention on Capitol Hill will now shift to funding the FAA’s broader modernization effort. Duffy said Trump has asked Congress for $30 billion, while he is seeking $50 billion to upgrade the system.
Johnson told Fox News he was working over the weekend on an “aggressive legislative package” and indicated that additional air traffic control funding would be included.
“We need a lot more,” he said, pointing again to the initial $12.5 billion investment. “This is a very important investment, obviously, for everyone.”
Newsweek*’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.* Contact Newsweek editors for this story: Steve Mollman and Anthony Murray.
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