Senators press FAA on controller shortages, training expansion and remote towers for rural airports
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Summary
Lawmakers questioned FAA Administrator Brian Bedford about controller shortages, plans to expand training capacity and FAA academies, using some modernization funds for training equipment, and accelerated pilots for remote/digital tower deployments for smaller airports.
Senators at the Commerce Subcommittee on Aviation and Space focused sustained questioning on the FAA's workforce challenges and how modernization funds should support training and rural operations.
Ranking Member Duckworth and others said modernizing equipment is important but must be matched by investment in people. Duckworth urged Congress to provide at least $20,000,000,000 for ATC modernization and asked Bedford to add a dedicated personnel category to modernization planning. "We must remember that the recent aviation safety crisis was driven by decades of FAA pouring billions into unproven technologies and costly service contracts... People are the foundation of the national airspace system," Bedford said.
Bedford described the FAA's Flight Plan 2026, whose first pillar is people. He cited meeting the fiscal-year hiring goal by adding more than 2,000 new controller trainees and said the agency has about 100 more certified controllers (from 10,600 to 10,700) and about 1,000 more trainees than a year ago. He also endorsed expanding the Enhanced Air Traffic Collegiate Training Initiative (ECTI) to more institutions and suggested the FAA consider deploying training equipment to community colleges to expand the pipeline.
On shorter-term operational flexibility, senators asked about remote and digital towers. Bedford said a digital remote tower system in FAA's tech center is undergoing safety assessment and that there are parallel deployments (Bartow, Fla., and Winter Haven) where digital towers operate alongside physical towers to test latency and performance; he committed to accelerate certification and deployment where safe.
Rural-impact concerns arose repeatedly. Senator Capito pressed Bedford to ensure smaller regional airports receive modernization attention and cited parts-availability issues (aging runway lighting and radar parts). Bedford said the FAA tests new digital radios and voice switches in smaller airports and begins modernization "from the small and work our way to the top." He also noted essential air service and advanced air mobility as possible long-term solutions for connectivity in remote communities but said EAS falls under the Department of Transportation.
The exchange underscored a bipartisan push to align modernization money with workforce development and to accelerate remote-tower certification so smaller communities can benefit from safety and capacity gains earlier.