← Videos · Economy, Tariffs & Trade

Duffy Joins Alaska's Senators for an Air Traffic Control and One Big Beautiful Bill Press Conference, Aug. 13, 2025

August 13, 2025 · US Department of Transportation · 0:24:16

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

What happened

Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy and Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Bryan Bedford held a press conference in Alaska on the One Big Beautiful Bill and aviation safety, in the Department of Transportation’s August 13, 2025 upload, with Senators Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski, as the department’s description names the participants. The senators opened by thanking Duffy for coming to see Alaska’s aviation challenges firsthand — the state had just hosted an aviation roundtable with its cargo operators, regional carriers, and the FAA, with a Port of Anchorage visit to follow, as Senator Sullivan described the day.

The figures stated at the press conference centered on air traffic control reform: a $12.5 billion down payment in the One Big Beautiful Bill for the air traffic control upgrade, against $31.5 billion needed to complete the nationwide rebuild, as the speakers stated the figures. Sullivan put the Alaska share in concrete terms: between the bill and the Secretary’s FAA safety initiative, $120 million already dedicated to Alaska aviation safety upgrades since Duffy took office, as he stated it — alongside $300 million from the bill to home-port the new Coast Guard icebreaker Storis at Juneau, commissioned two days earlier, as he stated it.

Why it matters

The Alaska stop is the One Big Beautiful Bill’s aviation money translated into a single state’s ledger — the national $12.5 billion down payment on one side, and a named $120 million already flowing to the most aviation-dependent state in the country on the other — delivered on the ground with the state’s Senate delegation rather than from a Washington podium.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: the $120 million stated as already dedicated to Alaska aviation safety, and the $12.5 billion national air traffic control down payment against a $31.5 billion completion need, as stated August 13, 2025. Flagged for the scoreboard editor; no entry is published from this page.

Sources: U.S. Department of Transportation, “Secretary Duffy Hosts Press Conference on One Big Beautiful Bill and Air Traffic Control” (official upload, embedded above). Remarks and figures as delivered at the press conference.