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Duffy Delivers the AASHTO Washington Briefing Keynote, Feb. 7, 2025

February 7, 2025 · US Department of Transportation · 0:12:25

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy addressed the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) during the 2025 Washington Briefing, in the Department of Transportation’s upload of the keynote. He opened, as he stated it, on the country’s hard week — the victims of the D.C. crash and of the Philadelphia crash — saying his heart went out to the families he had met with, before turning to the issues the state officials in the room care about, as he framed the address.

On the D.C. crash, he set out the tower question as he stated it: before the crash, two air traffic controller positions — one for helicopters, one for airplanes — had been consolidated into one, and he said his department would look at the policies and procedures inside the tower, why that happened and how the authority was given, and pull that authority back to make sure the right policies are in place, as he stated the review. He said the department does not have enough controllers and has a plan to surge more of them into the system, to be announced in the next couple of days, as he stated the timeline. On the helicopter’s flight, he stated his account: the crew had been told there was a landing flight and told the tower twice they had visual sight of it and would maintain visual separation — and did not; the helicopter’s maximum elevation was 200 feet and it was flying at 300 feet when the crash took place, as he stated the figures, adding that training missions can be flown at a different time of night. He said he had spoken with Elon Musk the day before and that the airspace would be remade quickly, as he stated the mission, with what he described as 1960s and World War II-era technology replaced by the most innovative air traffic control system, as he put it. He also recounted the President’s charge to him as he stated its terms, including that the average price of a car in America is $48,000 — more than the average teacher can afford, as he put the comparison — and that the President wants to build big roads and bridges across the country, as he stated the infrastructure charge.

Why it matters

The AASHTO keynote, nine days after the DCA crash, is the first full statement of Duffy’s governing agenda in one address: a tower-policy review with authority pulled back to the department, a controller surge about to be announced, military flight practices in the capital’s airspace questioned on the record, and the surface-transportation build — big roads and bridges — charged by the President alongside the airspace remake.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: the tower-policy review and controller surge plan as stated February 7, 2025 — the surge was the March supercharge initiative and the airspace remake the May 8 plan, both paged on this site. Flagged for the scoreboard editor; no entry is published from this page.

Sources: U.S. Department of Transportation, “Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy Keynote Address | 2025 AASHTO” (official upload, embedded above; description states Secretary Duffy addresses AASHTO during the 2025 Washington Briefing). Remarks and figures as delivered by Secretary Duffy at the briefing.