Committed to improving the pay for air traffic controllers in the United States of America.
Washington D.C.
Joined May 2025
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Ask the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to hold the FAA publicly accountable on controller pay, staffing and modernization funding.
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NEW from me: Duffy, White House, ready lobbying blitz on $30B air traffic control request politico.com/live-updates/20… via @politico
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The incoming Senate Appropriations chair calls for December government funding punt politi.co/4BPDZKl
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Our Dispatchers plan our routes around weather, but it’s an evolving situation. What the Dispatcher saw a couple hours ago may be very different when it’s time to actually fly.
ATC can issue route amendments. They change the route to help avoid weather, or airspace that closes suddenly. They can do so at anytime, from getting your clearance at the gate to mid-flight.
A major hurdle is that they have to predict how your route will interact with everyone else’s in addition to the weather. It’s pretty complicated in busy airspace, like the NE corridor (PHL, JFK, EWR, etc.) where a lot of traffic will pass through.
At times, the reroute leaves us lower on fuel than we’d like to be and adds significant time to the flight. ATC doesn’t want that, but there isn’t a better option.
I’m glad to see we’re trying to improve ATC. We’ve under-invested in the system for a long time & it’s been showing its age. Now, we need to get more Controllers…they are still seriously understaffed.
PROOF OUR SKIES ARE GETTING SMART-ER
Every day, I'm posting an example of how our new air traffic control management system — SMART — is saving YOU from endless delays and cancellations.
Last week, a flight out of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport carrying 119 passengers was supposed to hit bad weather. The initial plan was to fly around the storm.
That’s when experts in our SMART lab stepped in. Using predictive weather models, the lab developed a new, faster and shorter route.
The change saved flyers from a 33 minute delay!
Less time on the tarmac. More time at your destination. That's the power of SMART — more to come 🛫 @FAANews
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The FAA did provide comment to POLITICO’s controller pay story Friday, saying:
“The fact that we are hiring additional personnel and dedicating FAA employees specifically to process these payments should tell you just how much of a priority this is for us. We are putting every available resource toward making sure all controllers receive their 2.8% pay increase.”
The agency did not respond to questions about retirees and transfers not receiving back pay, among other inquiries.
Controllers who waited nearly six months for a long-promised pay raise will now have to wait up to 90 days more due to a technical snag, according to an internal email from the workers' union reviewed by POLITICO.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association also said that the FAA is limiting the pay bump to controllers who did not retire or transfer between Jan. 11 and Oct. 17, when the agreement with the FAA was signed.
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Air traffic controllers say their pay raise wasn’t paid out + FAA leader no longer testifying before Congress
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DEEP DIVE — FAA administrator Bryan Bedford’s hearing before House postponed amid air traffic controller issues washingtonexaminer.com/polic…
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Tomorrow's House hearing on air traffic control modernization has been "postponed until further notice."
transportation.house.gov/cal…
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A scary moment in the skies after an Air France flight bound for Tahiti deviated from its assigned departure route, crossing the path of an American Airlines jet headed to Dallas. @GioBenitez reports.
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Duckworth was previously the subcommittee chair, taking over the position from former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema in 2023
New: @SenDuckworth confirms to me that she wants to chair the Senate aviation subcommittee next Congress (she's the current ranking member). Says she “can't wait” to call FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford to appear before lawmakers. @politico
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House suddenly postpones hearing with FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford — here’s some context
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To reiterate what av reporters have been posting about today, tomorrow’s T&I hearing feat. FAA on the BNATCS program has been postponed. Means FAA won’t be able to address the latest snag on dispersing the 2.8% pay raise for controllers. My exclusive >
Controllers who waited nearly six months for a long-promised pay raise will now have to wait up to 90 days more due to a technical snag, according to an internal email from the workers' union reviewed by POLITICO.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association also said that the FAA is limiting the pay bump to controllers who did not retire or transfer between Jan. 11 and Oct. 17, when the agreement with the FAA was signed.
Tomorrow’s planned House T&I hearing with @bryan_bedford_faa has been delayed due to leadership elections. But we can use this extra time to call and advocate for ATC pay reform.
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On 7 Nov, an Air France A350 departed 24L at LAX as an American A321 departed 25R. The Air France aircraft reportedly deviated from its assigned departure.
Closest point was 08:17:59 UTC, with 0.694 nautical miles (1,285 metres) of lateral separation and 1,000 feet vertically.
The DOT and FAA are asking for more than $30 billion to modernize the National Airspace System. Let’s address what’s wrong with this ask; you can’t gaslight your most valuable asset and expect to not be questioned. If you call the FAA switchboard and ask for help, their own dispatch doesn’t know where to send your call. I was told that they are so understaffed that there was no one to send me to. I was given the general email address and then got an automated response that the FAA doesn’t conduct business by email. Now our air traffic controllers’ tiny “raise” is being processed by hand. It was approved by Congress in January of 2026 and we may not see it until January 2027. Also, they are working on decades-old pay scales, and there are threats of another government shutdown this December. Do better. Get your act together.
