Airport Alert: White House Releases More Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Details

May 30, 2025
Late this afternoon, the Trump administration released additional details regarding the proposed FY26 budgets for federal departments and agencies, including DOT/FAA and DHS/TSA/CBP.

Key items in the “Budget in Brief” documents released this afternoon for DOT/FAA include:

AIP: The fully authorized $4 billion is requested for the Airport Improvement Program. Out of those funds, $160 million is requested to administer the program; $41.8 million is designated for Airport Technology Research; and $15 million is requested for the Airport Cooperative Research Program.
FAA Operations: $13.8 billion is requested, including $35 million to enhance FAA’s cybersecurity and $217.2 million for fixed cost increases for air traffic controller and aviation safety inspector hiring, the introduction of new equipment into the system, and increased costs of key air traffic service contracts, including the Federal Contract Tower Program and telecommunication carrier costs.
Controller Staffing: $97.3 million is requested to “supercharge” controller hiring and training. Budget documents note that FAA will increase the hiring target to 2,500 new controllers in FY26 compared to 2,000 in FY25. FAA has an additional goal to increase the annual number of air traffic controllers trained to at least 1,900 or more in FY26.
FAA Facilities and Equipment: $4 billion is requested for FAA F&E. Of these funds, $1 billion would go toward transitioning from copper-based to fiber-based telecommunications, and $450 million is requested to initiate a multi-year effort to replace FAA’s aging radar systems. Budget documents note that in addition to the $4 billion request for F&E, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill includes an additional $1 billion in advance appropriations in FY26, which FAA will utilize to invest $594.9 million in sustaining aging facilities.
FAA Research, Engineering & Development: $165 million is requested, including $15.6 million to support research that builds upon current drone operations, policy, and procedures to achieve full Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) integration in the airspace system; $10 million to support eliminating the use of leaded aviation fuel by the end of 2030; and $4.2 million to further the safe integration of commercial space operations into the national airspace.
Essential Air Service: $315.9 million is requested for EAS, of which $173.9 million is from mandatory overflight fees collected by the FAA and $142 million is in discretionary appropriations. This is a reduction of $308 million compared to FY25. This request is accompanied by a legislative proposal aimed at controlling the costs of the program while ensuring that necessary services for eligible smaller communities continue.

On the TSA front, the White House is proposing a total of $10.8 billion in discretionary appropriations, including:

Transportation Security Officers (TSOs): The budget proposes a reduction of $148 million or 1,289 TSOs, reflecting vacancies in the TSO workforce and efforts to optimize current staff levels.
Exit Lane Staffing: The budget proposes a reduction of $98.5 million to eliminate 1,173 TSOs that monitor airport exit lanes, once again proposing to shift TSA’s responsibility to airports. The budget document explains that this is not a security function but rather an access control function and that “TSA will continue to work with airports to integrate exit lane security into their perimeter security plans.”
Other TSA Workforce Reductions: The budget proposes a reduction of $28.5 million from other TSA workforce (non-TSOs), reflecting an agency effort to streamline operations and reduce redundancies while still focusing on critical mission areas.
LEO Grants and Canines: There is no funding proposed for either the LEO reimbursement grant or state and local canine teams. Both programs were eliminated in FY24. AAAE will continue to advocate on Capitol Hill to restore funding for these programs.
Computed Tomography: $215 million is requested to significantly enhance security screening capabilities through the procurement, deployment, and maintenance of Computed Tomography equipment.
Biometric Technology: $20 million is proposed to improve biometric technology, including self-service systems to support novel approaches to the travel document checker position, and identity verification processes to protect travelers’ privacy. According to the budget document, this will make air travel faster and more secure while decreasing TSA’s staffing footprint.
World Cup and America’s 250th Birthday Support: The budget recommends $4.7 million for TSA personnel, including their National Deployment Force, canine teams, and Federal Air Marshals, to assist with security screening in support of the 2026 World Cup at 11 different venues and America's Semiquincentennial anniversary celebration events.
Aviation Security Fees: The budget assumes Congress will end the diversion of aviation security passenger fees currently being used for deficit reduction and that those fees ($1.6 billion) will be used by TSA in FY26. Efforts by Congress to end this diversion have largely been unsuccessful previously due to a problem with finding an offset to replace the fee revenue.

On the CBP front, the budget requests a total of $23 billion, including:

CBP Officers: $122.9 million to hire 450 new CBP officers. This is a separate request from the 5,000 new officers included in the House-passed budget reconciliation bill. AAAE has been advocating for 6,000 new officers, a level that would fully address the known officer shortfall. If officers from this request and those included in reconciliation are fully funded, most of the workforce shortfall would be satisfied.
World Cup and America’s 250th Birthday Support: The budget recommends $6.6 million to fund officer overtime during the six-week World Cup event and the America250 celebration. Approximately 40 days of overtime are needed to support processing an increase in passenger traffic entering the U.S. from foreign countries to attend the games.

To be clear, the administration’s budget request is simply a starting point for negotiations on the budget for the upcoming fiscal year that begins on October 1. With the late budget delivery, Congress is eager to begin its FY26 spending process. The House Appropriations Committee will commence markups of its FY26 recommendations next week. Notably, the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee will release and consider its FY26 funding recommendations on Monday, June 9. The subcommittee that funds DOT and FAA has its markup scheduled for July 7. FAA Acting Administrator Chris Rocheleau is scheduled to be before the DOT/FAA funding subcommittee on Wednesday, June 4, to discuss the budget request for FAA.

Additional Information: