Sponsors (12)
Official title: Amend title 49, United States Code, to provide for air traffic control training improvements, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 24, 2025 by John Hoeven · Last progress February 24, 2025
The bill directs federal funding and program changes to expand and modernize ATC training, improve controller recruitment and safety, and clarify radar modernization choices—benefiting trainees, controllers, and public safety—while increasing federal spending and creating risks around hiring preferences, discretionary grant uses, local radar transition costs, and administrative burdens.
Students seeking air traffic controller careers gain a clearer, funded pathway through expanded CTI/Enhanced-CTI training and hiring opportunities, lowering barriers into the profession.
Colleges and FAA facilities will see expanded training capacity and quality through grants for simulators, curriculum development, faculty hiring, and placement of training support systems at ATC facilities.
New financial incentives, training resources, and instructor benefits (faculty annuity supplement) improve recruitment and retention of air traffic controllers and controller instructors.
The bill authorizes roughly $20 million per year (about $120 million over FY2026–FY2031), increasing federal spending and adding budgetary pressure that may crowd out other priorities or require offsets.
If the FAA replaces rather than sustains existing radar models, local airports and governments could face new equipment costs, operational disruptions, or matching requirements during transitions.
Allowing noncompetitive hiring preferences for CTI graduates risks weakening merit-based federal hiring and could reduce fair competition for FAA positions.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Authorizes Enhanced‑CTI grants and training support system funding, directs FAA curriculum/assessment review and AR C, and creates trainee qualification and controller retention incentives.
Creates a package of workforce, training, equipment, and mental‑health actions to strengthen the U.S. air traffic control (ATC) system. It requires the FAA to maintain and expand Collegiate Training Initiative (CTI) programs (including a new Enhanced‑CTI grant program with dedicated funding), convene an aviation rulemaking committee to review ATC curricula and assessments, fund training support systems at facilities, establish qualification and retention incentive programs for trainees and certified controllers, and direct near‑term FAA actions on mental‑health training for providers and an assessment of airport surveillance radar programs.