The House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Aviation has abruptly canceled a hearing with Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Bryan Bedford less than 24 hours before the appearance was scheduled, according to the committee.
The Tuesday morning hearing was supposed to cover how the FAA was fulfilling its $12.5 billion project to roll out the “Brand-New Air Traffic Control System,” known as BNATCS, as the agency and the Department of Transportation push Congress to provide $30 billion more.
Bedford was set to be in the hot seat following his previous appearance before Congress in September, when Democratic members questioned why he had not paid out a 2.8% pay raise to the agency’s 11,000 certified air traffic controllers nationwide since lawmakers funded the raises in April. Air traffic controllers are employees of the FAA.
After Bedford was scolded by Washington lawmakers during that hearing, the FAA and National Air Traffic Controllers Association union agreed to terms to offer controllers back pay dating to Jan. 11, as well as implement the pay raise for all future pay.
NATCA President Nick Daniels wrote in an Oct. 16 email to members that the union had reached an agreement with the FAA to implement the 2.8% pay raise on Oct. 18, meaning that it would hit payroll Nov. 5, according to a copy of the email obtained by the Washington Examiner.
More than two dozen air traffic controllers have contacted the Washington Examiner since Nov. 5 to report that they were not given back pay for the past 10 months, triggering new questions as to the cause for the delay.
Controllers who are union members pointed the blame at both the FAA and NATCA, saying the union did not inform them in a lengthy Oct. 30 email about the pay raise agreement that they would not all get paid on Nov. 5.
Impact of back pay delays
Several air traffic controllers said the further delay in getting back pay was coming before another potential government shutdown, when they could be forced to work without pay. Controllers asked to speak on the condition of anonymity because they are not allowed to speak with the media.
“None of us will see this money go into our 401k, the contribution match from the agency or anything of the similar. No matter what, we’re still getting screwed,” one controller wrote in a text message.
Another controller said the FAA owed more than $5,000 in back pay and said the money, when paid, was going to cover a leaking roof.
“Parts of it are leaking and it’s been raining and storming more than usual. We had someone come out last week to give us an initial estimate,” the controller wrote in a text message on Monday. “Was really looking forward to this back pay coming through to help cover this unanticipated expense especially as the holidays are approaching. Our family could really use the money that is due to us.”
In an email to union members on Oct. 30, NATCA stated the 2.8% raise was only starting to be processed by the FAA on Nov. 2, and that employees would not be paid until January 2027 because processing it required approximately 83,000 manual entries into the data system.
Another controller said the further delay added to long-standing frustrations with the FAA and union.
“The fact that they did nothing to prepare for this after the raise was official is mind blowing,” the controller wrote in a text message. “It’s just beyond disrespectful at this point.”
In an email to the Washington Examiner on Monday, NATCA said “the implementation of the pay increase and processing of retroactive pay are the responsibility of the FAA” and that questions about the delays and timeline should be directed to the FAA.
The FAA did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump DOT aims to overhaul air traffic control
Since taking office in early 2025, the Trump administration has made air traffic control a top transportation focus.
The Transportation Department and FAA came out in late September with a request for Congress to fund a $30 billion project to finish modernizing the nation’s air traffic control system and, in turn, address flight delays and cancellations.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Bedford endorsed Sen. Eric Schmitt’s (R-MO) Modern Skies Act. The Modern Skies Act includes $10 billion for tower replacement projects and ground facilities, $10 billion for upgrading telecommunications architecture and digitizing analog systems, and another $10 billion for general airport infrastructure and expanding software systems.
The legislation follows the $12.5 billion that Congress initially put forward for the project last year.
With that funding, the FAA has begun to replace infrastructure, including radar, software, hardware, and telecommunications, through more than 10,000 projects nationwide, all of which are being tracked.
Another air traffic controller pointed to the huge push to improve technology in the national airspace and said it was ironic that the FAA was able to pour billions of dollars into technology but would not spend money on any sort of program that could speed up the back pay issue.
“They said they had to go in and adjust each person at a time and takes about 30 [min] each. And that DOGE slashed the workforce,” the controller wrote in a text message. “All this technology and we can’t have one person sit down for an hour and develop a program to do this automatically?”
Air traffic controller shortage
Commercial air travel has soared to all-time high levels of nearly 3 million passengers per day since the pandemic, according to the Transportation Security Administration. The FAA has struggled to maintain enough air traffic controllers and to operate using antiquated flight-tracking systems and ground infrastructure amid a series of high-profile aviation incidents.
Although the $12.5 billion Congress allotted to the first part of the project also includes hiring more air traffic controllers, some who contacted the Washington Examiner said the agency was dramatically short-staffed without a way to make up for a coming wave of employee departures in 2028.
In an interview at the DOT’s Washington headquarters in August, Bedford said the pay raise was being held up until FAA leadership could “unlock more productivity” from controllers.
Air travel has surged since 1980. More than 906 million people boarded flights in the United States last year compared to 295 million in 1980, yet thousands fewer certified controllers work today than 46 years ago — about 11,000 now compared to 16,300 then.
More than 90% of the nation’s 313 air traffic control facilities were short-staffed as of 2025, according to the New York Times.
In addition to the existing shortage of controllers, the FAA has projected it will lose up to 6,900 controllers through 2028 due to retirements, resignations, transfers, and those who do not complete training.
Controllers say they are buckling under the scheduling requirements. Hundreds of air traffic controllers who contacted the Washington Examiner this fall reported a long-term trend of getting just four days off per month. Shifts regularly span 10 hours. Instead of working a standard four-day, 40-hour week, controllers say they are often assigned two mandatory overtime shifts per week, forcing them into six-day workweeks that often devastate family and personal life, as well as complicate mental health.
The staffing shortage has led to tragic outcomes: Insiders note that suicides among controllers are eight times the national average, while tenured employees are increasingly walking away from the agency years before reaching mandatory retirement age.
Lawmakers advocate for FAA employees
The crisis has caught the attention of lawmakers on Capitol Hill. After reviewing more than 100 comments submitted to the Washington Examiner by active controllers, Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) said Duffy should address the matter, as well as a handful of House lawmakers who called out Bedford during a September hearing.
Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) accused Bedford of having “taken some discretions not intended in the law, certainly not intended when Congress approved” the pay raise, while Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) said Bedford was “putting a condition on something that we passed.”
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Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) told Bedford his approach to low morale and understaffing was akin to a “Catch-22.”
“You don’t think that they’re working as effectively. But then you say you’re understaffed,” said Watson Coleman.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
