USCTA Alert

July 1, 2025

The Senate today narrowly passed a massive budget reconciliation package that contains $12.5 billion for air traffic control modernization but excludes funding to replace outdated contract towers. The revised bill is now back in the House where GOP leaders are trying to clear it by July 4.
 
The Senate-passed bill includes $12.5 billion to modernize the nation’s air traffic control system. Of that amount, $4.75 billion is slated for telecommunications upgrades and $3 billion for radar system replacement – the same funding levels included in the House-passed version of the bill. It also contains $50 million for remote towers.
 
Unlike the reconciliation package initially approved by the House, the modified Senate bill excludes funding to replace aging ATC towers. As a reminder, the House-passed bill included $2.16 billion for ATC tower and terminal approach control facility replacement. It called for not less than $240 million of that amount to be reserved for contract towers and other sponsor-owned ATC towers.
 
Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) filed an amendment that would have upped funding for ATC modernization to $15 billion and would have restored the $240 million for tower replacement. But the Senate did not consider the amendment before final passage.