Duffy clashes with Democrats over DEI funding cuts, denies air traffic controllers let go
Duffy said such initiatives sucked money from other projects, and he pointed to the 2023 Harvard Supreme Court decision that effectively ended affirmative action in college admissions as justification for scrapping them. He said such Biden-era policies inflated project costs without contributing to safety or infrastructure quality.
"Our department, over the course of the last hundred days, has saved taxpayers roughly $9.5 billion," Duffy said in his opening statement. "Those savings include monies pulled from projects tied to social justice to climate requirements, also boondoggle projects, as well as bringing efficiencies to the department."
Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., took issue with the move and drew on personal experience to justify it.
"My late wife... had to walk two and a half miles to school every morning right past the White school, where the White kids had buses. That was social injustice," Clyburn said. "Now all of a sudden we see this as wasteful government spending? I don't think so. I think this is a wise investment in a country that has challenges that we need all people involved in."
Duffy, while praising Clyburn's history and work as an elected official, clarified that he wasn't attacking the broader concept of social justice, but rather specific policy conditions under the Biden administration.
"What I see with the climate and the social justice requirements in the projects that you so dearly want built, that it's adding costs on," Duffy said. "It's costing more money. If we take out 5 to 10% climate or social justice, that's money we don't have for additional projects. And that's my concern."
Duffy also clashed with Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif., who claimed that 400 air traffic controllers have been let go, accusing the Trump administration of eroding national air travel safety and delaying infrastructure projects.
"The administration undermined [safety efforts] by offering deferred resignation to controllers, and at least 400 of them… were fired, resulting in delays to much-needed upgrades," Torres said.
Duffy sharply pushed back, calling her statement a "falsehood" and flatly denying the claim.
"We have not fired – haven't let go – anyone," Duffy said. "Air traffic controllers? You said we let 400 go. No one in air traffic control has been allowed to take a deferred resignation offer. Not one. Not 400. Zero."
The hearing focused on reviewing the Transportation Department's FY 2026 discretionary budget request of $26.7 billion, a 5.8% increase from FY 2025. He promised to reduce bureaucracy, eliminate inefficiencies and reallocate savings to infrastructure.
"Our budget carefully focuses taxpayer resources on items critical to our most fundamental mission of safety and investing in transportation infrastructure," Duffy said.
In terms of the recent outages at Newark Airport, he blamed them on missteps by the previous administration, citing an ill-planned transfer of airspace control from New York to Philadelphia.
"They didn't test and make sure the lines were hardened… and they didn't move the STARS system, which helps interpret radar," Duffy said.
"We're working at lightning speed and pace to get this resolved," he said.
To ease pressure on the system, the FAA is also working with airlines to reduce flight volumes, he said.
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