Johnson: FAA Ground Stop Calls for Investment, Not an Investigation

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Saturday that Congress does not need to investigate Friday’s nationwide FAA ground stop to know what has to happen next, arguing the answer is more money for the nation’s aging air traffic control system, The Hill reported.

“We don’t really need any investigation … we need further investment,” Johnson said during an interview with Fox News’s “Saturday in America,” according to The Hill. “I mean, some of this equipment dates back to the eighties so it’s gotta be updated and that’s our responsibility. We’re gonna work to get it done.”

Johnson says ‘we don’t really need any investigation’ on FAA ground stophttps://t.co/8YllMlozmi

— The Hill (@thehill) November 14, 2026

Lame-duck funding push

Johnson told Fox News on Saturday that Republicans will use the remaining 50 days of their majority in Congress to authorize more spending on the FAA, CNN reported via KESQ. Johnson, in his first interview since the midterms, discussed “the urgent need for congressional funding to update the nation’s outdated air traffic control systems,” according to Fox News.

Fox News said the speaker also discussed Republicans’ legislative priorities for the upcoming lame-duck session during the “Saturday in America” segment.

What officials say caused the stop

The FAA issued the rare nationwide ground stop around 4 p.m. Eastern on Friday and lifted it at about 8:15 p.m., The Hill reported. Duffy said at a Saturday news conference that contractor L3Harris had been switching telecommunication lines from old copper wire to fiber at at least one remote FAA location, CNN reported via KESQ.

“What did L3Harris do? Did they make mistakes yesterday?” Duffy told reporters, according to CNN. “Or was it a faulty router? And we’re going to find that out. And frankly, we’re going to hold people accountable.” Duffy also said it remains unclear whether a contractor error or faulty equipment was to blame, CNN reported.

L3Harris said in a statement to CNN that it is “supporting the FAA in its investigation to understand the conditions that led to the Nov. 13 ground stop.”

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said as many as 17 of the agency’s 22 air traffic control centers were affected, though none “actually went dark,” according to CNN. “We see zero evidence of anything nefarious, and zero evidence of anything AI-related,” Bedford said, CNN reported.

Duffy wants $50 billion

Duffy has called for a multibillion-dollar overhaul rather than a “patchwork” fix, The Hill reported. “I want $50 billion,” Duffy said at a White House briefing Friday night, according to The Hill. In September, he asked Congress for $30 billion for new technology, control towers and airport improvements, The Hill reported.

The disruption carried into Saturday. More than 5,000 flights within, into or out of the U.S. had been canceled as of Saturday afternoon, according to flight-tracking data from FlightAware cited by The Hill.

Sources

• The Hill on X
• The Hill: Johnson says ‘we don’t really need any investigation’ on FAA ground stop
• CNN via KESQ: What we know about the cause of the nationwide FAA ground stop
• Fox News: Speaker Johnson addresses calls for Congress to fund outdated air traffic control systems

Reporting by Daily Beltway.