Please Ask Your Senators to Sign Contract Tower Funding Letter

April 29, 2025

The Fiscal Year 2026 appropriations process is starting to heat up, and we need your help. Please reach out to your Senators and ask them to sign a letter requesting full funding for the FAA Contract Tower Program in the Fiscal Year 2026 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill.  
 
Senators Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) are asking their colleagues to join them in signing a letter to Senate Appropriations Committee that requests full funding for the FCT program in FY26. A copy of the letter may be viewed here.
 
The FAA is expected to dedicate $255 million for the contract tower program in FY25 -- almost $50 million above the FY24 level. We are urging Congress to boost funding for the program to $275 million next year. That would be enough to cover operations at 265 airports currently in the program and allow the agency to add other airports to the program.
 
Request: Please contact your Senators as soon as possible and ask them to cosign the Wicker-Blumenthal letter that requests full funding for the FCT program in FY26. Draft talking points are below:

• On behalf of __________ Airport, I would like to thank you for supporting the FAA Contract Tower Program and ask for your continued assistance in the Fiscal Year 2026 appropriations process.
• As you know, the Contract Tower Program is a successful and cost-effective program that enhances aviation safety at our airport and at 264 other small airports around the country.
• To illustrate the cost-effectiveness of the program, contract towers handle approximately 28 percent of all U.S. tower operations but only account for 10 percent of the FAA’s overall budget allotted to air traffic control tower operations.  
• Senators Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) have drafted a bipartisan letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee requesting full funding for the Contract Tower Program in the FY26 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill.
• I realize you receive several funding requests this time of year. But I urge you to highlight your support for our airport and for the cost-effective FAA Contract Tower Program by cosigning this important appropriations request letter.  
• Full funding for the FAA Contract Tower Program will ensure that the program can continue to enhance aviation safety at our airport and airports around the country while achieving significant cost savings for the FAA.  
• At a time when Congress, the administration, and aviation stakeholders are focusing on ways to reduce the risk of near misses and runway incursions, it is critical that we fully fund the FAA Contract Tower Program.
• Thank you again for supporting our airport and for considering our request.