Congressman Tom Cole, right, is greeted by Lawton Mayor Stan Booker, left, as he visits Lawton-Fort Sill Regional Airport Monday to discuss some of the modernization policies for the Federal Aviation Adminis tration included in House Resolution 1, also known as President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
H.R.1 “invests $12.5 billion to overhaul America’s outdated and failing air traffic control systems,” Cole said. Specifically, the measure is expected “to bring safety, efficiency and world-class innovation to America’s skies,” by replacing outdated radar systems, telecommunications and air traffic control centers — some dating back to the 1960s.
In addition to replacing floppy disks and copper wire infrastructure — which costs taxpayers more than $100 million a month in upkeep — the measure also “delivers on President Trump’s Promise: a bold step towards transforming our national airspace and making flying safer, faster and more reliable,” and “mod ernizes Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) facilities and air traffic control facilities averaging 40 years old.”
H.R.1 also “funds workforce and training: addresses the more than 3,000-controller shortage by investing in recruitment, retention and advanced training technologies” and “boosts efficiency: consolidates out dated and unneeded facilities to streamline operations and lower long-term costs,” Cole said.
“Overall, this will improve airports and the flying experience at airports across our nation, including the Lawton-Fort Sill Airport,” he said