NATCA Bookshelf

N A T C A I N W A S H I N G T O N 2 0 2 5 N i W To d a y 30 30 30 30 ISSUES multiple short-term CRs, makes planning for long- term improvement and modernization programs extremely difficult. Stopping and restarting modernization programs has caused significant delays to development, testing, and implementation timelines, while also making them more expensive. Some program development, testing, and implementation may need to completely start over. Message C o n g r e s s H a s A l w a y s M e t FA A's S t a t e d B u d g e t a r y N e e d s The NAS moves over 45,000 flights and 2.9 million passengers, and more than 61,000 tons of cargo every day across more than 29 million square miles of airspace. Although it is the safest, most efficient, and most complex system in the world, we always strive to bolster safety, mitigate risk, and improve efficiency. Stable and sufficient funding for the FAA has become increasingly critical to accomplishing these goals, whereas funding instability places the NAS in jeopardy of falling behind on safety, efficiency, and capacity. The FAA, like much of the federal government, has faced an unstable and unpredictable funding stream for the better part of two decades. Unfortunately, administrations from both parties have a long history of submitting FAA budget requests to Congress that fall short of what the Agency truly needs to fund its Operations (Ops) and Facilities & Equipment (F&E) budgets. Congress has consistently provided the FAA with the resources it requests through both authorization of top-line numbers and the annual appropriations process. However, the FAA has repeatedly requested inadequate funding levels, contributing to significant backlogs of NAS system sustainment and ATC facility sustainment, growing delays in the implementation of NAS modernization and system improvements, and delayed air traffic control (ATC) tower and radar facility replacement. FAA's budgets have not kept up with inflation over the past 15 years. For instance, the FAA has consistently requested roughly $3 billion in annual appropriations for F&E, even though in FY 2024 the Agency's internal budgetary estimates showed that it needed at least $4.5 billion, with that need quickly approaching $6 billion. This loss of spending and buying power for F&E programs forced FAA into a "fix-on-fail" model by requiring it to prioritize mandatory costs, leaving little to no money for modernization and infrastructure programs. NATCA supports the Department of Transportation's (DOT) FY 2025 Operations budget request, which included an increase to $13.6 billion from the 2024 CR level of $12.7 billion. The DOT's FY 2025 budget request accounts for the government-wide pay increase along with a $43 million increase to hire and train at least 2,000 new air traffic controllers to rebuild the controller staffing levels and meet current and projected traffic demands. This hiring target was established in accordance with the maximum hiring requirement in the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 and must increase in future years as the FAA Academy expands its capacity. Additionally, the FAA's FY 2025 F&E budget request is consistent with its true budgetary needs, although not entirely through its F&E request. In addition to its $3.6 billion F&E request, FAA cites the $1 billion in funds authorized for 2025 through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) as supplementing its facilities and infrastructure funding needs. It also proposes a new Facility Replacement and Radar Modernization fund that would dedicate $8 billion over the next five years – beginning with $1 billion in 2025 – to replace or modernize aging ATC facilities. This includes modernizing 377 critical radar systems and more than 20 ATC facilities. NATCA, along with a wide array of industry stakeholders, strongly support this request. Additional funding, such as the Facility Replacement and Radar Modernization proposed in the FY 2025 Budget, would provide the necessary resources to improve physical infrastructure and working conditions, while also providing for many desperately needed modernization and technology updates to aviation systems and ATC automation platforms that are used by controllers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. To maintain aviation safety, efficiency, and capacity, the FAA's future budget requests must account for current and future funding needs to prevent further budget shortfalls that could jeopardize hiring, training, modernization, sustainment of critical equipment and programs, and physical infrastructure. The Agency must FAA Funding Requires Robust Authorization and Appropriations Levels Issue

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