At a congressional hearing in Washington on Tuesday, advocates cited issues with unstable funding, aging infrastructure and inadequate staffing for critical air traffic control functions, and lobbied for fundamental change in how the FAA is managed and funded. Paul Rinaldi, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, told the House aviation subcommittee that "the current funding situation is unacceptable, and we would like to explore alternative models that could address these problems." Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., who chairs the committee, agreed that change is needed. "We have spent $6billion on NextGen, but the airlines have seen few benefits," he said. "We will never get there on the current path."
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/news/future-of-atc-discussed-in-congress