Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy Blames Past Presidents and Congress for National Flight Ground Stop

The administration of former President Donald Trump on Sunday attributed the widespread travel disruption caused by Friday’s four-hour nationwide flight stoppage to previous administrations and a lack of congressional funding. However, a Democratic senator argued that the current administration has not properly utilized the funds already allocated for essential air travel infrastructure upgrades.

“I take responsibility for what was given to me by prior administrations,” US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told CNN’s Dana Bash. This comes a day after Duffy stated that routine but necessary maintenance, which was botched by a contractor, triggered Friday’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ground stop. The incident resulted in the delay or cancellation of thousands of flights nationwide.

Meanwhile, Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland criticized how the Trump administration has managed the existing funding allocated for the infrastructure improvements sought by Duffy.

“It is quite rich to hear the secretary pointing fingers at Congress when Congress has provided the administration with exactly what they requested,” Van Hollen separately told CNN’s Bash on Sunday morning. “If they require additional funds, they should present and justify their needs. I will support whatever is necessary to ensure a safe and reliable system.”

Duffy countered that the $12.5 billion in congressional funding mentioned by Van Hollen was highly restricted in its scope and far from sufficient.

“I cannot use the $12.5 billion for a new telecommunications architecture,” Duffy stated. “I cannot build new software to manage aircraft in our airspace because the system dates back to the 1990s, and there is no funding for that. There is no money for towers, and our towers are incredibly old.”

Duffy also used part of his CNN interview to defend former President Trump, who did not comment on the longest nationwide ground stop in 25 years until Sunday.

The former president’s comments came via social media posts blaming the Biden administration and stating he was busy “in the White House having meetings on many subjects.” These posts followed his earlier message outlining a bipartisan congressional initiative to revitalize the motion picture and television industries.

“Before I even took office, the president, who deeply cares about our airspace, told me we must modernize it,” Duffy told Bash. “He is the first president who has shown this level of commitment to modernizing our airspace.”

When questioned about why Trump took two days to address the ground stop, Duffy claimed the former president had been in constant, behind-the-scenes contact regarding the situation.

“He was fully engaged because this is important to him and vital to America,” Duffy asserted. “The president is entirely supportive, fully engaged, and was closely tracking the developments.”

In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump blamed Joe Biden’s administration and demanded immediate funding from Congress.

“The Biden Administration was an FAA disaster. Everything they touched turned bad,” Trump wrote. “We possess the knowledge and the plan for the Flight Control Systems; we simply need Congress to provide the funding, and FAST!”

In a separate Sunday appearance on CBS News’ Face the Nation, Duffy told host Margaret Brennan that the FAA was actively investigating the root cause of the botched maintenance that triggered the ground stop. He noted that the maintenance—replacing telecommunication lines from old copper wires to fiber optic cables—had been performed “thousands of times” without incident.

The contractor, L3Harris, is reportedly conducting diagnostic tests. Duffy, reiterating his previous statements, maintained there was no indication of a foreign cyberattack. The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS), an AFL-CIO labor union representing over 11,000 FAA workers, stated that the technicians it represents were not involved in the upgrades that caused the ground stop.

“The issue was isolated to two contractor-owned and maintained routers being updated midday,” the union stated. “Historically, contractors have adhered to a protocol where FAA employees conduct risk assessments and coordinate system or equipment maintenance.”

However, the union clarified that PASS-represented technicians were not involved in the specific upgrades at the center of Friday’s ground stop.

Duffy responded to the union’s statement by saying, “This was done appropriately, which, by the way, has been done thousands of times by us, by others, and by other companies.”

“This has never happened before,” Duffy argued. “That is why, when dealing with a remote location like this, we felt comfortable performing the work in the middle of the day, as it has been done thousands of times. We have never encountered this situation, and we will need to re-evaluate how and when we perform this work.”

When asked if a risk assessment had been conducted, Duffy did not answer directly, stating, “We conduct risk assessments on everything.”

Duffy also referenced a Government Accountability Office report published in September 2026, which highlighted the urgent need to modernize air traffic control systems.

Addressing the report’s suggestion that modernization efforts might be prioritizing speed over costs and air traffic disruptions, Duffy asserted, “Regarding speed, I believe we are moving at the right pace.”

PASS has additionally called for improvements in the staffing of certified professional technicians at the FAA, urging for full union engagement in the implementation of the proposed Brand New Air Traffic Control System.

“These employees require training on new equipment and could ensure more robust installation and optimization—if the workforce were adequately staffed,” the union added.

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