FAA gets $20 billion to fix old airports and air traffic control.
S. 5572 — Modern Skies Act · Filed by Eric Schmitt (R-MO) · Introduced Sep 28, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
The bill gives $10 billion to help 3 medium-hub airports. These airports will fix old terminals built before 1990. It gives $10.1 billion to the FAA to upgrade air traffic control systems. The upgrades include new automation and cloud technology. The federal government pays up to 90% of terminal costs. Airports must show three things: they will save money, help the local economy, and bring more airlines.
Who it affects
Passengers at medium-hub airports will get newer terminals and faster air traffic control. Airlines will have better facilities and systems. Local airports and the FAA will get federal money.
One thing to notice
Only 3 airports can get terminal money, so airports must compete to be picked. The FAA administrator can move air traffic control money around as needed.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Sep 28, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Sep 28, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- medium-hub airports — Airports that serve between 0.05% and 0.25% of all U.S. airline passengers.
- air traffic control — The system that guides planes safely in the sky and on the ground.
- automation — Machines and computers that do work without a person controlling each step.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (10,881 characters) on Oct 7, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
“FAA gets $20 billion to fix old airports and air traffic control.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s5572/simple Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.