Why It Matters

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies is set to hold a DOT budget hearing on May 19, bringing Secretary Sean Duffy's fiscal year 2026 budget request before lawmakers at a moment when the administration's transportation agenda is generating serious friction.

Flight caps at Chicago O'Hare due to air traffic controller shortages, the proposed cancellation of congressionally authorized electric vehicle charging programs, and the termination of nearly $700 million in previously awarded grants have given this annual congressional budget review unusual stakes.

The hearing will be chaired by Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR), with Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) serving as Ranking Member.

FAA Staffing

The most immediate pressure point heading into the transportation funding hearing is the Federal Aviation Administration's controller shortage. According to the FAA's own Controller Workforce Plan for 2025–2028, the agency needs to hire at least 8,900 new controllers through 2028, including 2,200 in fiscal year 2026 alone. The gap between need and capacity has already produced consequences: the FAA has imposed flight limits at Chicago O'Hare from mid-May through late October 2026 due to operational issues stemming from understaffing, according to reporting from AvWeb.

The FAA's own safety review team has warned that "operations necessitated by staff shortages erode the margin of safety" and that "too few air traffic controllers result in operations supervisors working an air traffic control position," according to the FAA's National Airspace System Safety Review Team report.

A February 2026 letter to FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford from members of Congress cited a National Academies report and called on the agency to address scheduling practices that rely too heavily on overtime, noting that "controllers have struggled to use the paid time off that they earned," according to the letter published by Rep. Pramila Jayapal's office.

The depth of the staffing problem has pushed the FAA toward unconventional recruiting. USA Today reported in April that the agency is actively targeting the gaming community, with FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford stating that "safety is the FAA's top priority, and that starts with hiring top talent and equipping them with world-class tools." The agency drew over 6,000 applications within 12 hours for a recent hiring push, but the scale of need far outpaces any single recruiting campaign.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association has spent $240,000 lobbying on FAA air traffic control modernization, reauthorization, and employment issues over the past year. JetBlue Airways spent $750,000 in the first quarter of 2025 alone on issues including "FAA Air Traffic Control operations, staffing levels, hiring, training, and infrastructure."

Defense contractor SAIC spent $140,000 across two quarters on FAA air traffic control modernization and staffing needs, and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association has filed three consecutive quarterly disclosures covering ATC modernization and FAA reauthorization implementation.

Grant Cancellations

The DOT budget hearing arrives as the administration's approach to previously awarded transportation grants has drawn sharp criticism from both parties. The Senate Appropriations Committee held a parallel DOT budget hearing in which Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) stated that the administration has "illegally frozen, cancelled, and slow-walked federal funding for transportation projects across America," adding that "no prior transportation secretary has cut funding for previously awarded grants in this manner."

Secretary Duffy's DOT announcement that $679 million in funding for 12 offshore wind transportation projects had been withdrawn or terminated (redirected toward what the administration described as "real infrastructure") is among the specific actions House appropriators are expected to probe. The legal and constitutional questions around executive branch authority to claw back congressionally directed funds sit at the center of the subcommittee's oversight role.

The NEVI Program

The administration's fiscal year 2026 budget request proposes canceling the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program and the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Grants Program, both funded under the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The Georgetown Climate Center has noted that only 16 percent of NEVI program funds available to states for fiscal years 2022 through 2025 have been obligated, leaving unobligated funds from prior years at risk under the administration's proposal.

The EV charging industry has been active ahead of the House Appropriations Committee hearing. EVgo Services has spent $250,000 over five consecutive quarters lobbying on "electric vehicle charging infrastructure funding and implementation" of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Electrify America spent $180,000 across two quarters, specifically on NEVI program issues and surface transportation reauthorization.

Broader Budget Picture

The DOT budget subcommittee will also confront proposed cuts to rail research and development. According to an SSTI analysis of the fiscal year 2026 federal transportation budget, funding for a rail research and development center of excellence drops from $5 million (offered in the fiscal year 2025 Notice of Funding Opportunity) to "not less than $2.5 million" in the current request, a 50 percent reduction.

Underlying all of these line-item debates is a structural revenue problem. A May 9 analysis flagged the growing mismatch between stagnant federal gas tax revenues and rising electric vehicle adoption, a tension the administration has sharpened by simultaneously proposing to cancel EV charging infrastructure while relying on a gas-tax-dependent Highway Trust Fund.

The Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (which spent $1.935 million lobbying on DOT budget and appropriations, FAA staffing, aviation, rail, and maritime issues across 2025 and the first quarter of 2026) represents the broadest organized interest watching the outcome.

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