Bedford, the Hill, and the Funding Fight Behind Every Clearance You Have Ever Received

On September 15, 2026, FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford testified before the House Appropriations subcommittee overseeing aviation, making the case for continued, predictable funding to sustain the agency’s air traffic control modernization effort. The subcommittee controls the budget. What happens there determines whether a decades-long infrastructure overhaul stays on schedule - or stalls.

What Is Actually Being Modernized

The push to upgrade America’s ATC infrastructure has been underway for the better part of two decades. The umbrella program is called NextGen, launched around 2007, with the goal of shifting the national airspace system from ground-based radar to a satellite-based architecture. The centerpiece technology - Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) - has been mandated in most controlled airspace since January 2020. Pilots largely completed that transition at their own expense.

The ground side of that equation is still in progress.

Two major automation platforms sit at the core of the modernization effort. STARS (Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System) is the platform approach controllers at TRACONs use to manage arriving and departing traffic. It has been deployed across dozens of facilities and is still being rolled out at others. Some of the systems it replaced were 30 to 40 years old - predating many of the aircraft they were controlling.

ERAM (En Route Automation Modernization) handles high-altitude traffic at the en route centers. It replaced the Host computer system that center controllers had used since the 1970s and has been fully deployed across all 20 Air Route Traffic Control Centers in the continental U.S. That phase is complete - but ERAM itself now requires updates as technology and airspace continue to evolve.

The Facilities Problem

Beyond automation software, the physical buildings housing TRACONs and towers across the country are aging. Many face HVAC failures, structural issues, and power reliability concerns. The FAA’s long-term plan calls for consolidating stand-alone TRACONs into larger, regional approach control facilities - reducing maintenance costs over time but requiring significant capital investment upfront.

Modern, well-equipped facilities also affect staffing. A controller working on outdated equipment in a deteriorating building faces a fundamentally different job than one working in a consolidated, current-generation facility. The infrastructure problem and the workforce shortage are not separate issues.

The Controller Shortage Is Part of This

The FAA has been operating below target staffing levels at several key facilities for years. The pandemic disrupted the hiring pipeline significantly. The FAA Academy in Oklahoma City fell behind, and full certification at complex facilities takes years - there is no quick fix. Bedford has linked the workforce gap directly to the modernization effort: building and retaining a controller workforce is harder when the facilities and equipment are unreliable.

Bedford has led the FAA since 2022, when he joined as acting administrator. He was confirmed as permanent administrator in 2023. His consistent position has been that the agency needs long-term, predictable appropriations - not continuing resolutions and short-term patches - to execute a plan that requires contractors, workforce development, and facility construction to move in sequence.

Why Budget Uncertainty Is the Real Problem

Continuing resolutions - temporary funding measures that keep the government running at prior-year levels when a full budget has not passed - are particularly damaging for multi-year infrastructure projects. When a contractor cannot count on contract continuity, they reduce staff. When the FAA cannot count on its budget, it defers purchases and delays hiring. The backlog the agency is now working through is partly a product of years of that cycle.

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) has been tracking this issue and reported on Bedford’s testimony. The association noted that the modernization effort has been making tangible progress, and that progress is what is at risk if funding becomes uncertain.

How This Affects Pilots Directly

Delays. Understaffed facilities running aging automation produce ground stops, miles-in-trail restrictions, and departure holds that cascade system-wide. A more modern, redundant system absorbs weather events and equipment outages better.

Airspace design. Many current route structures are legacy artifacts of a radar-based system. Performance-Based Navigation (PBN) - including RNAV and RNP procedures - enables more precise routing and curved approaches that older systems could not support. Deploying those procedures depends on facilities having the automation and controllers having the training to back them up.

Surface safety. High-profile runway incursions in recent years have spotlighted surface detection technology, particularly ASDE-X (Surface Detection Equipment Model X). Expanding that coverage to more airports requires the same sustained capital investment Bedford is requesting.

Communications. The FAA is in early stages of transitioning ATC voice communications from aging VHF ground infrastructure toward satellite-based datalink - eventually affecting general aviation as well. Digital ATIS, datalink clearances, and controller-pilot communications that do not require line-of-sight radio are all on the long-term roadmap. None of it happens without a funded, stable program office behind it.

A Fair Critique - and Its Limits

NextGen was originally projected to deliver significant capacity improvements by around 2025. The reality involved delays, cost overruns, and the complexity of changing out live systems inside the world’s busiest airspace. Some promised benefits arrived later than outlined, or in a different form.

That criticism is legitimate. But the response to a modernization program that has moved too slowly is not to defund it - it is to fund it reliably and hold the agency to specific milestones. The compounding effect of decades of deferred maintenance is the condition that made modernization necessary in the first place.

Key Takeaways

• FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford testified before the House Appropriations subcommittee on September 15, 2026, seeking stable, long-term funding for ATC modernization.
• STARS (terminal automation) and ERAM (en route automation) are the two core platforms being modernized; ERAM is fully deployed, STARS is still rolling out.
• Controller staffing shortages and aging facilities are directly linked - modernizing infrastructure helps with both recruitment and retention.
• Budget uncertainty via continuing resolutions forces contractor staffing reductions and deferred purchases, compounding the existing backlog.
• Every pilot is affected: delays, airspace design, surface safety, and the future of satellite-based communications all depend on sustained investment in this infrastructure.