Airport Alert: More Details Emerge on Senate Version of FY26 DOT/FAA Spending Bill   

July 25, 2025

The Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday overwhelmingly approved a Fiscal Year 2026 transportation spending bill that includes $4 billion for the Airport Improvement Program and an additional $319.4 million for airport earmarks and supplemental AIP grants. Today, the committee released the bill text, report, and earmarks – shedding light on what’s included in the legislation and the fate of airport priorities. The Senate bill will ultimately need to be reconciled with the version of the FY26 DOT/FAA spending measure working its way through the House of Representatives.
 
The following includes highlights from S. 2465, the Fiscal Year 2026 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act:
 
Funding for FAA Programs
 
FAA: The Senate bill includes $22 billion for the FAA, which is $1.4 billion above the current level.
 
Operations: It includes $13.8 billion for FAA operations, an amount that will allow FAA to hire 2,500 air traffic controllers, improve controller training, and hire 91 new aviation safety inspectors and engineers.
 
Facilities and Equipment: The measure includes a total of $5 billion for FAA facilities and equipment, “to improve critical systems that air traffic controllers rely on, fully implement NextGen technologies, and address the backlog of facility, radar, and equipment repair and replacement projects.”
 
During the markup yesterday, Appropriations Committee member and Aviation Subcommittee Chair Jerry Moran (R-KS) said the $5 billion for FAA facilities and equipment matches the president’s budget request and “compliments the $12.5 billion that was included in reconciliation” for ATC modernization.
 
Research, Engineering, and Development: The Senate bill includes $290 million for research, engineering, and development -- $10 million above the current level. Of the total amount, $30 million is reserved for the aviation workforce development programs.
 
Airport Improvement Program
 
Traditional AIP Funding: The Senate bill includes $4 billion for the traditional AIP account in FY26 – the same amount authorized in the FAA bill. Of that amount, $160 million is for administration expenses, $15 million is for the Airport Cooperative Research Program, and $15 million is for the Small Community Air Service Development Program. Another $41.8 million is reserved for Airport Technology Research. Of that amount $6 million is for the airfield technology program with $3 million for concrete pavement research and $3 million for asphalt pavement research.
 
Supplemental AIP Funding/Earmarks/Rural Airport Grant Program: The bill proposes an additional $319.4 million for supplemental AIP grants. Of that amount, $269.4 million is reserved for earmarks, known as “Congressionally Directed Spending” in the Senate. Another $50 million is for discretionary grants with $25 million of that amount slated for “a new discretionary rural airport grant program that targets those airports who have typically received a smaller amount of entitlement money based on their annual AIP formula amounts.”
 
Funding to Help Airports Transition to Fluorine-Free Firefighting Foam: The Senate bill does not include funding to help airports transition to fluorine-free firefighting foam. The House version of the bill would provide a $30 million down payment for the PFAS replacement program in FY26. The FAA bill authorized a total of $350 million over five years to help airports transition to fluorine-free firefighting foam.
 
Continued EDS Prohibition: The bill continues the prohibition against using AIP funds for “the replacement of baggage conveyor systems, reconfiguration of terminal baggage areas, or other airport improvements that are necessary to install bulk explosive detection systems.”
 
Zero-Emission Vehicle and Voluntary Airport Low Emissions Programs: The Committee directs the FAA to provide not less than $50 million for ZEV and VALE eligible projects. The Committee also “expects the FAA to actively engage with airport sponsors at major hubs to identify projects suitable for the VALE program, such as energy efficiency, energy resiliency, and renewable energy projects that would help prevent power disruptions or outages.”
 
Sound Insulation: The report notes that the Committee “is aware that certain sound
insulation projects installed prior to 2002 caused physical damage to the residence or the materials used for such insulation have deteriorated, broken, or are otherwise no longer functional.” The Committee “directs the FAA to consider residences that were
mitigated prior to 2002 with sound insulation as ‘unmitigated.’”
 
Reimbursable Agreements: The report indicates that the Committee “is aware of challenges facing the administration of the State block grant program for certain airports, and the reimbursable agreement (RA) associated with them.” The Committee “directs the FAA to work with stakeholders who participate in a block grant program, and all relevant FAA offices, to modify the current process in order to reduce any additional costs and delays being imposed on States and airports.”
 
Boarding Bridges: The report notes the Committee’s support for a provision in the FAA reauthorization bill “that prohibits Federal funding from going towards the procurement of passenger boarding bridges from Chinese State-owned, controlled, or subsidized companies that seek to threaten the United States’ economy and national security.”
 
FAA Operations
 
Air Traffic Controller Hiring: The report indicates the Committee’s support for the FAA’s plans to hire 2,500 new air traffic controllers in FY26. It also calls on the FAA to “expand training at the FAA Training Academy at the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center (MMAC) and supplement these efforts by expanding air traffic controller training through the air-traffic collegiate training initiative (AT–CTI) program.”
 
AT–CTI: The report tells the FAA to “ensure that all air traffic controller trainees from the AT–CTI and enhanced-CTI programs are taught according to the same rigorous and uniform standards….” And it calls on the agency to closely monitor these programs and provide sufficient oversight for each school.
 
FAA/DOD Deconfliction Coordination: The report includes a proposal from Senator John Hoeven (R-ND) that expresses the Committee’s support for “FAA’s joint efforts with DOD to ensure coordination and management of commercial and military flight operations, including in special use airspace, with an emphasis on deconfliction.” It also states its support for testing and deployment of software that provides “real-time, dynamic status-sharing and management to optimize the use of the National airspace system for all stakeholders, including for use with FAA Contract Towers.”
 
Tower Services: The report directs the FAA “to: (1) identify airports that are currently served by FAA towers with nonradar approach and departure control; and (2) develop an implementation plan, which takes into account budgetary and flight volume considerations, to provide an airport identified under section (1), if appropriate,
with approach control radar.
 
UAS: The bill includes $6 million for “matching funds to commercial entities that contract with an FAA-designated UAS test range to demonstrate or validate technologies that the FAA considers essential to the safe integration of UAS into the NAS.”
 
ATC Privatization: The report highlights the committee’s strong opposition to ATC privatization. Specially, the report states, “the Committee does not support any efforts to transfer the FAA’s air traffic functions to a not-for-profit, independent, private corporation. The Committee is aware that if the Nation’s air traffic control system had been privatized during the COVID–19 pandemic, similar to other air navigation service providers in Canada and the European Union, the United States would have faced severe funding shortfalls. These shortfalls would have likely led to controller layoffs and greater risks to flight safety, and a slower recovery after the end of the pandemic, thus leading to more flight delays and price increases for consumers.”
 
Contract Tower Program
 
Contract Towers: The Senate bill includes $279.2 million for the FAA Contract Tower Program – $23.2 million more than the current level. That proposed increase would fund all 265 contract towers currently in the program and allow the FAA to add other airports to the program during the next fiscal year. The report also calls on the FAA to “expeditiously add qualified eligible airports” to the program. If enacted into law, the proposal would represent more than a $100 million increase for the program since FY22. 

Transition Program: The bill includes $8 million to convert high activity contract towers to FAA staffed towers. The FAA reauthorization bill, which Congress passed last year, included language that directs the FAA to establish a pilot program to convert certain contract towers at airports with high numbers of annual enplanements or operations. The appropriations language would provide initial funding for that pilot program.
 
Airborne Situational Awareness Technology: The report includes a USCTA-backed proposal from Senator Hoeven that calls on the FAA to move forward expeditiously with airborne situational awareness technology in contract towers and to ensure airports can use discretionary and entitlements to acquire that equipment.
 
Contract Tower Program Applications: The bill includes language preventing funds “from being used to withhold from consideration and approval any new application for participation in the contract tower program, including applications from cost share program participants if the Administrator determines such tower is eligible.”
 
Cost Benefit Ratios: The report directs the FAA to “expedite the applications for cost-benefit ratio studies upon receipt of all applications to the contract tower program and to take into account all relevant operations activities, including military and commercial operations, as permissible under current law.”
 
Other Small Community Programs
 
Small Community Air Service Development: As mentioned above, the Senate bill includes $15 million for the Small Community Air Service Development Program -- $10 million above the current level and $15 million more than the administration requested.
 
Essential Air Service: The Senate bill includes $513.6 million in discretionary funding for the Essential Air Service Program. Coupled with an estimated $173.9 million from overflight fees, the overall funding level for EAS would rise to $687.5 million in FY26. According to Vice Chair Murray, this funding level rejects “President Trump’s budget request to cut the program by 50%—and it prevents DOT from haphazardly terminating any EAS contracts.”
 
Miscellaneous
 
Cost Free Space: The Senate bill includes a AAAE-backed proposal that would continue to prohibit the FAA from requiring airports to provide space free of charge in airport-owned buildings.
 
Remote Towers: The bill includes not less than $3 million for the remote towers program.
 
Airport Cooperative Research Program: As mentioned above, the Senate bill includes $15 million in AIP funding for the Airport Cooperative Research Program.
 
DCA: Vice Chair Murray indicated that the bill “includes $2 million for an independent study on the airspace in the National Capital Region and the coordination between the FAA and Department of Defense in response to the tragic Flight 5342 accident in January.”
 
Additional Info

• Bill text.
• Committee Report.
• Earmarks.
• Chair’s Press Release.
• Vice Chair’s Press Release.
• Chair’s Summary.
• Vice Chair’s Summary.
• List of Adopted Amendments.
• AAAE Priorities for FY26 DOT/FAA Appropriations Bill.