Reject the FAA's Understaffed Workforce Plan and Fund Real Controller Hiring

Congress must reject the FAA's revised staffing target and provide real oversight and funding to fix the air traffic controller crisis. The new 2026-2028 Workforce Plan sets a target of 12,563 certified controllers — but the FAA currently has roughly 11,000, meaning the plan barely closes the gap and does nothing to address the deeper problem. We are approximately 3,800 controllers short of what's actually needed to safely staff our nation's facilities. The human cost of this shortage is already visible. More than 41 percent of certified professional controllers are working 10-hour days, six days a week. That's not a scheduling problem — that's a staffing crisis. No automated tool fixes exhaustion, and recent accidents and near-misses have made clear what's at stake when controllers are stretched past their limits. Facilities maintenance crews are equally shorthanded, compounding the risk. The FAA's own 2024 data showed 2.2 million hours of overtime costing taxpayers $200 million in a single year. The plan also ignores the math on attrition and certification timelines. Controllers must retire at 56, certification takes up to two years, and not all trainees make it through. Lowering the target while recruitment pipelines remain uncertain is not a solution — it's a gamble with public safety. I need you to demand independent oversight of this workforce plan, reject any budget that locks in these inadequate targets, and fund the hiring and training necessary to get staffing where it actually needs to be.