White House Releases Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Request

March 11, 2024

On March 11, the White House unveiled a fiscal year 2025 budget request that proposes $3.35 billion for AIP and $8 billion over the next five years to upgrade FAA facilities and radars. The budget release comes just days after the President signed into law a six-bill minibus appropriations package that included funding for DOT and FAA in FY24 and as lawmakers are still trying to wrap up six other appropriations bills for the current fiscal year including one that funds DHS, TSA, and CBP.

 
Although the administration's FY25 budget request proposes flat funding for AIP, we will be pressing Congress to up that amount to $4 billion with the expectation that Congress will complete action on the FAA reauthorization bill and authorize higher funding levels for airport infrastructure. The White House plan does not include additional funding for supplemental discretionary grants, which lawmakers used in the FY24 appropriations process to fund $532.4 million in congressional earmarks and other airport infrastructure projects.
 
On the DHS front, the White House is proposing to fund almost 3,500 additional Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) to meet rising demand. However, the budget request again calls for transitioning TSA's responsibility for staffing exit lanes to airports – a move that would save the agency almost $111 million next year—as well as eliminating funding for Law Enforcement Officer (LEO) reimbursement grants and airport LEO-operated canine teams. We will continue to urge Congress to reject these cost-shifting proposals. 
 
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. Congress will be eager to put its stamp on FY25 spending, and many lawmakers, particularly House Republicans, will have significantly different views from the Biden Administration. Below are key highlights of the administration's FY25 budget request.
 
Federal Aviation Administration
 
The White House plan includes a total of $21.8 billion for the FAA in FY25. According to its budget highlights, this amount includes $3.6 billion to modernize the National Airspace System and funds to allow the agency to continue its 'air traffic controller hiring and training surge, with a plan to hire a total of 2,000 new controllers in FY 2025.'
 
Airport Improvement Program
 
Traditional AIP Funding: The administration is proposing $3.35 billion for traditional AIP funding in FY25 – the same as the current funding level. Of that amount, $163.5 million would go toward administrative costs, $15 million for the Airport Cooperative Research Program, and $43.3 million for Airport Technology Research.
 
Supplemental Funding: The administration is not requesting any funding for supplemental discretionary grants in FY25. The FY24 transportation spending package, which the President recently signed into law, included $532.4 million for supplemental AIP discretionary grants. Lawmakers fenced off $482.4 million of that amount for congressional earmarks. 
 
Facilities and Equipment
 
F&E Funding: The administration is proposing almost $3.6 billion for FAA Facilities and Equipment in FY25 – almost $409 million above the current level. The administration indicates that this amount would 'ensure the NAS continues to safely accommodate the growth in traditional commercial aviation traffic alongside new entrants from the commercial space, unmanned aircraft, and advanced air mobility industries.'
 
Facility Replacement and Radar Modernization: The White House is also proposing a mandatory program costing $8 billion over five years to modernize FAA facilities and radars. This program – which requires congressional approval – would begin in FY25 with an initial $1 billion investment.
 
'This proposal would fund the first-ever recapitalization of FAA's Air Route Traffic Control Centers, alongside the replacement of over 20 air traffic control towers,' according to budget documents. 'The mandatory Facility Replacement and Radar Modernization Program will ensure our major infrastructure assets are recapitalized in time to mitigate service degradations and safety risks.'
 
Tower Replacement: Like the administration's previous budget request, its FY25 plan outlines the criteria and other qualifications that the FAA used to evaluate FAA-owned towers for possible replacement with funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Using these criteria and qualifications, the agency evaluated 31 Tier 3 and Tier 4 FAA-owned towers for replacement including 22 at contract tower airports. See pages 616-610 of the Budget Estimates for details.
 
Air Traffic Facilities: The budget includes new information that highlights the condition of FAA facilities including FAA contract towers. That list starts on page 549 of the Budget Estimates for details.
 
Operations
 
Operations Funding: The White House proposal includes more than $13.6 billion for FAA operations -- almost $874 million above the current level. Under the administration's plan, approximately $11.8 billion of that amount would come from the Airport and Airway Trust Fund. 
 
Controller Staffing: The budget request includes $43 million 'to continue the hiring surge by hiring and training at least 2,000 new air traffic controllers in FY 2025.' The budget highlights how 'FAA is in the midst of a multi-year hiring and training surge to ensure an adequate level of certified air traffic controllers.'
 
Research, Engineering, and Development
 
RE&D Funding: The White House is proposing $250 million for FAA's Research, Engineering, and Development – $30 million less than the FY24 enacted level.
 
Small Community Programs
 
FAA Contract Tower Program: As expected, the administration's budget does not include a specific funding request for the FAA Contract Tower Program. The FY24 DOT appropriations bill included $205.4 million for the FCT Program -- a record amount that is $11.4 million more than the House and Senate proposed and $17.6 million above the FY23 enacted level.
 
However, the budget indicates that the administration is requesting additional funds 'to support inflationary cost increases in support service contracts like the Federal Contract Tower program, equipment parts, facility leases, and the introduction of new equipment into the system.' AAAE and USCTA have continued to highlight the increasing costs for the FCT program.
 
It goes on to say that 'one example of inflationary cost increases is the Federal Contract Tower program, which accounts for 263 towers (49% of the terminal ATC facilities in the system). The cost of the Federal Contract Tower program increased by $35 million in FY 2023 and is projected to increase by another $42 million by FY 2025.'
 
Essential Air Service: The administration's budget request includes $423 million in appropriated funds for the EAS program. Coupled with an expected $160 million from overflight fees, total funding for EAS would rise to about $588 million in FY25. That would be $85 million above the current level.
 
Small Community Air Service Development: The administration is not requesting funds for the Small Community Air Service Development Program in FY25. Funding for the program traditionally comes from the AIP account.
 
Miscellaneous
 
Administration Targets Business Aviation: The FY25 budget request includes 'a proposal to enhance excise taxes for business aviation activities so that revenues related to business aviation are aligned to their use of the aviation system.' The administration justifies its proposal by arguing that 'not all users of the airspace pay a proportionate share into the Airport and Airway Trust Fund, which funds the bulk of the FAA's costs of operating and maintaining the NAS.'
 
Unleaded Fuel: The administration is requesting $8.4 million 'to support continuing analyses and testing of unleaded alternative candidate fuels leading to the replacement of current leaded aviation gasoline with safe unleaded alternative fuels.'
 
Department of Homeland Security
 
The administration is proposing a discretionary budget of $62.6 billion for the Department of Homeland Security in FY25, including funding for the Transportation Security Administration, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and critical infrastructure cybersecurity efforts. Without completion of a final FY24 spending bill for DHS, the administration's budget compares the FY25 request to the FY23 enacted level. 
 
While DHS touts that its budget request is two percent above the FY23 spending level, the administration assumes that TSA will be able to use more of the aviation passenger security fee, which requires a change in law that has not yet occurred. After factoring out this fee, DHS' net discretionary request is $60.6 billion, which is slightly below the amount provided in 2023. 
 
Unfortunately, this request once again proposes to eliminate TSA funding for several security programs and shift those costs to airports.
 
Transportation Security Administration
 
The administration is requesting a total of $11.5 billion for TSA, which is $2.2 billion above the FY23 enacted level. However, this increase assumes Congress will end the diversion of aviation security passenger fees currently being diverted to deficit reduction and that those fees will be used by TSA. As highlighted previously, efforts in Congress to end the diversion of aviation security fees have been unsuccessful to this point due to the problem of finding an offset to replace the fee revenue. This budget proposal will face the same challenge. 
 
After factoring out fees, the net discretionary funding requested for TSA is $6.6 billion, $108 million above the FY23 enacted level. Key funding items include:
 
Pay Equity: The budget includes an additional $1.5 billion to fully fund the TSA pay equity initiative first funded in the FY23 omnibus appropriations bill to ensure that the TSA workforce is compensated at rates commensurate to their federal counterparts. The budget notes that 'since implementing pay parity in July 2023, TSA has already seen an 11percent reduction in attrition and is making gains in retaining what has historically been a workforce with high turnover.'
 
Additional Transportation Security Officers: TSA is anticipating average daily enplanements of 3.1 million passengers in 2025. In expectation of this volume, the budget requests $365 million for 3,473 additional TSOs to staff airport checkpoints and checked baggage screening facilities to maintain passenger wait time standards of 30 minutes at standard lanes and 10 minutes at PreCheck lanes. 
 
Checkpoint Security Technologies: The budget includes $89.6 million for the Checkpoint Property Screening System programs to address 'capability gaps to detect new and evolving threats reliably and efficiently to civil aviation in current property screening technology.' This funding will be used to procure and deploy computed tomography machines for accessible property screening at airport checkpoints nationwide. 

Eliminates Funding for TSA to Staff Airport Exit Lanes: Once again, the budget proposes transitioning access control at exit lanes from TSA to airports, saving the agency $110.9 million and 1,285 FTEs. TSA states that 'staffing exit lanes is not a screening function, but rather falls under the purview of state and local control authorities.' For this transition to occur, the administration will need to provide legislation for Congress to approve because the Bipartisan Budget Act required TSA to continue its responsibility to monitor airport exit lanes from the sterile area of the airport at those locations where TSA monitored them on December 1, 2013. TSA currently provides coverage at 202 exit lanes at 99 airports.
 
Eliminates Funding for Law Enforcement Officer Reimbursement Grants: The budget proposes to eliminate $47.2 million that partially reimburses about 290 airports for their dedicated, on-site law enforcement personnel that support passenger screening checkpoints throughout the United States. TSA justifies the elimination of these grants because 'law enforcement is the responsibility of local and state jurisdictions.' The budget request notes that this reduction in funding 'will not exempt airports from providing law enforcement services as agreed to in the ASPs, and as such, in the event of a security incident, law enforcement must still respond and provide support in accordance with the relevant ASP.'
 
Eliminates Canine Reimbursement Program: The request seeks to eliminate stipends for the 675 state and local LEO-operated canine teams, saving the agency $34.1 million. The budget explains that TSA does not own these teams, which are 'allocated to airports, mass transit, and maritime facilities across the Nation…. and does not have primary law enforcement responsibility at these locations.' Instead of these stipends, TSA will offer current participants the option to convert to a recently established 'No Cost Other Transaction Agreement' in which the participant fully funds the operations of their canine teams but receives TSA training and certification. Under this new OTA agreement, participants would still have to maintain training standards and response times that are currently outlined within the agreement. TSA will continue to fund its 422 federal-led passenger screening canine teams.
 
Reduce Funding for Federal Air Marshals: The request proposes a $19.6 million reduction in funding for the Federal Air Marshals due to attrition, meaning that less funding is required to sustain current and anticipated on-board personnel.
 
National Deployment Office Travel Expenses: The budget includes $10 million for short-term deployments of its special reserve workforce in circumstances that require a higher number of security personnel to meet increased passenger volumes that occur at checkpoints during major events. 
 
Improves Traveler Experience. The budget includes $3.3 million for TSA to continue piloting the customer experience manager model at four airports. This funding will allow TSA to design, implement, measure, and report on targeted customer experience improvements to transform the +858 million passengers and +50,000-member workforce experience at airports. In a factsheet on how the administration will improve customer experience, easy-to-understand signage at airports as well as better collection and analysis of customer feedback to take improvement actions were specific items highlighted.
 
Cyber Threats: Given that cybersecurity threats represent a critical risk to transportation, the budget requests a total of $136 million, an increase of $15 million, to bolster TSA's initiatives to enhance cybersecurity support across all transportation modes, develop threat-informed policies and regulations, and enforce compliance with expanding and evolving cyber regulations. The budget explains that these additional resources will empower TSA to enhance cybersecurity resilience, mitigate cyber risks, and offer structural oversight and regulatory guidance. 
 
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
 
The administration is proposing $16.6 billion in net discretionary funding for CBP, which is $1.5 billion below the level enacted in FY23. The budget contains scant details about airport priorities. Instead, it focuses on the agency's border security efforts and a new contingency plan to deal with migration surges along the Southwest border. Highlights include:
 
CBP Officers: The request includes $29.4 million for 150 new CBP officers in FY25. In addition, the budget reiterates the need for $239 million to hire 1,000 additional CBP Officers to stop illicit fentanyl and other contraband from entering the U.S. which it requested as part of the October 2023 emergency supplemental request for Southwest border and migration issues. Unfortunately, Congress has not yet acted on this request. 
 
Overtime: The White House proposes to continue the per-person overtime cap at $45,000 in FY25, consistent with prior years' limitations. 
 
Biometric Exit: The budget request assumes the collection of $21.35 million in fees to support the biometric exit program in FY25. While visa revenues that fund this program have been declining for several years, CBP has been and will continue to accelerate the biometric exit system in the air environment, building upon existing operational platforms and proven biometric technologies in partnership with the air travel industry. The budget notes that CBP has developed a device-agnostic back-end system and infrastructure that allows for private-sector investment in front-end infrastructure, such as biometrically enabled self-service baggage kiosks, facial recognition self-boarding gates, and other biometrically enabled services.
 
Additional Information

• Budget Highlights
• Budget Appendix
• DOT Budget Highlights
• DOT Budget Estimates
• DHS Budget in Brief