Staff member said the "1 big beautiful Bill Act" would set aside $12,500,000,000 to begin modernizing the nation's air traffic control system, including replacing aging infrastructure, hiring additional air traffic controllers and testing new technology at the Federal Aviation Administration's William Hughes Technical Center in Atlanta County.

The proposal matters because, the staff member said, parts of the current system remain on decades-old hardware and software that have not kept pace with modern needs. "Believe it or not, some parts of our system are still using copper wire and even floppy disks," the staff member said, calling that state of affairs "unacceptable in The United States Of America."

The staff member, speaking as a member of the aviation subcommittee, described the bill as a response to recent aviation incidents and framed the funding as the start of a multiyear effort to replace equipment and validate new systems. "We'll be testing and validating this new technology to make sure it's safe, effective, and ready to go," the staff member said, identifying the William Hughes Technical Center as the planned site for testing and validation work.

The remarks link three main elements: a funding figure cited by the speaker, hiring more controllers, and technology testing at the FAA facility named in the remarks. The staff member said the bill would "begin replacing that aging infrastructure, hiring more air traffic controllers, and updating the technology that keeps our skies safe." The speaker also invoked national competitiveness and safety as reasons for the investment: "This is about protecting lives, keeping America competitive, and ensuring remain the global leader in aviation."

The transcript did not identify a formal vote, a committee directive, or specific statutory citations beyond the bill name. The amount and programmatic details are presented as the speaker's description of the bill; the article does not assert those figures as enacted appropriations or final policy. Next steps for the bill—committee markup, floor consideration or enactment—were not specified in the transcript.