House panel presses FAA on $22 billion budget and broad air-traffic modernization plan

The House Appropriations subcommittee opened a hearing on the Federal Aviation Administration's fiscal year 2026 budget request, during which Acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau told lawmakers the administration is requesting $22,000,000,000 for FAA operations and programs and that, combined with previously enacted advanced appropriations of $5,000,000,000, the agency would have $27,000,000,000 available for NAS investments.

Why it matters: Lawmakers said the nation’s aging air-traffic infrastructure and recent safety incidents make near-term modernization and sustainability urgent. Members pressed for specifics on how the FAA will balance sustaining current systems while building a new, common-platform air-traffic system.

Rocheleau described the budget’s major components and goals. “The FAA's mission is to provide the safest, most efficient aerospace system in the world,” he said in his opening statement. He told the panel the request includes a historic $4,000,000,000 for the facilities and equipment account and called out a $1,000,000,000 component to accelerate a move from time-division multiplexing circuits to an Internet-protocol based telecommunications network (referred to in testimony as Project Lift). The budget also includes $450,000,000 to initiate a radar replacement program for aging surveillance radars and $97,300,000 targeted to support controller hiring and training to bring up to 2,500 new air traffic controllers in FY2026.

Committee members repeatedly pressed for more detail on how the funds would be allocated between sustaining legacy systems and deploying new technology. “You still have to operate a system that you currently have,” Chairman Womack said, asking how the FAA would both sustain current operations and pursue large-scale modernization. Rocheleau replied that the request “incorporates the needs to continue to sustain what we have in place today” while accelerating new investments and noted the agency spends “over 90% of our funding right now just on maintaining, sometimes band aiding some of the equipment that we have.”

Members flagged past long-running efforts and budget overruns, referencing the NextGen modernization program. When asked to grade NextGen, Rocheleau said parts of the program produced useful capabilities such as datacom but acknowledged the program “was not fully realized” and that lessons learned inform the new approach.

Lawmakers also sought implementation details and schedules. Administrator Rocheleau said the agency issued a request for information to industry for the transition and emphasized that the modernization will be tested and switched over deliberately to preserve day-to-day operations. “We continue to operate the system safely every day, and then we switch over into these new modern systems with intentional deliberate testing to make sure the redundancy and the resiliency is there,” he said.

The chair and other members expressed support for bipartisan investment but said the subcommittee needs more granular procurement, contracting and implementation plans to judge the request. Representative Cole described the plan as “big” and “expensive” and asked whether academy and training improvements were included; Rocheleau confirmed the budget accommodates academy modernization and training equipment.

The hearing closed with members stressing urgency and willingness to work with the agency. Rocheleau and lawmakers agreed the modernization effort will span multiple years and will require congressional cooperation and oversight to align funding, procurement and testing schedules.

Looking ahead, lawmakers asked for additional budget detail, procurement timelines and metrics for evaluating progress; Rocheleau committed to follow-up briefings and to work with the subcommittee on implementation details.