Former President Joe Biden and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg were warned repeatedly that America’s air traffic control system was outdated and on the verge of collapse. But according to current Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, they chose to do virtually nothing, despite having the largest infrastructure package in history at their disposal.
Speaking on Fox News, Duffy pointed the finger squarely at Biden and Buttigieg for ignoring years of warnings from government watchdogs, including the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
“Everyone’s shocked that the system is so old and antiquated, but it wasn’t shocking to Joe Biden and it wasn’t shocking to Pete Buttigieg,” Duffy told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum. “They knew we had an old system. They saw the GAO reports saying it was about to fail.”
According to Duffy, the Biden administration could have done something about it.
“The largest infrastructure package, Martha, ever known to man in the history of the world — the infrastructure bill under Joe Biden — was $1.2 trillion,” Duffy said. “They sent only $5 billion to fix air traffic control, and of the $5 billion, Pete Buttigieg spent less than $1 billion to fix this problem.”
And that was hardly money well spent.
Duffy noted that Buttigieg was busy with pet projects and woke virtue signaling. “He was focused on racist roads and changing the name of ‘cockpit’ to ‘flight deck’ or ‘airman’ to ‘aeronaut,’” he said. “Stupid stuff.”
Duffy said the situation he inherited was worse than expected. “Shortly after DCA, I started digging into the FAA and realized it wasn’t just one small part of the infrastructure,” he explained. “It was the whole infrastructure that had to be built brand new.”
For years, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued warnings that the FAA’s outdated systems were increasingly vulnerable to malfunctions, service outages, and dangerous delays. Those warnings became tragically relevant following the January 29 crash involving an American Airlines flight and a U.S. Army helicopter, which claimed the lives of all 67 people on board. Reagan National Airport, known for its congested airspace and complex traffic patterns, had experienced multiple near-misses between helicopters and commercial aircraft in recent years, including one just the day before the fatal collision.
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An August 2023 New York Times investigation revealed a sharp rise in near collisions at U.S. airports nationwide, with internal FAA records showing commercial airline close calls were happening multiple times a week — 46 incidents in July alone.
Recognizing the scale of the problem, Duffy said he crafted a comprehensive plan and took it directly to the president. “I’ve developed a plan. I’ve talked to the president. He’s signed off on the plan,” Duffy said. “We now have to go to Congress and say, ‘Listen, Congress, this is imperative. This is really critical infrastructure. Let’s get the money to build this brand new.’”
Duffy acknowledged that rebuilding the system won’t happen overnight, but it’s a necessary step. “It’s gonna take time,” he admitted. “It’s gonna take, you know, three or four years to build it.”
Buttigieg & Biden knew the air traffic control system was antiquated. They saw the government watchdog reports warning the system was aging.
What did they do? Nothing! Instead they spent their time focused on changing the name of “cockpit” to “flight deck.” pic.twitter.com/QaNtYvaCCl
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) May 6, 2025
The Biden administration had the money and the warnings but chose symbolism and woke virtue signalling over results. Now, under Trump’s leadership, the focus has returned to real priorities — fixing what’s broken before it fails completely. With a new plan in place and Trump’s backing, Duffy is aiming to do what his predecessors refused to: rebuild America’s air traffic system before it’s too late.
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