{"id":7349,"date":"2025-10-16T22:20:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T22:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/7349\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T22:20:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T22:20:10","slug":"florida-lawmakers-push-dot-faa-on-modernization-of-states-air-traffic-control-infrastructure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/7349\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida lawmakers push DOT, FAA on modernization of state\u2019s air traffic control infrastructure"},"content":{"rendered":"

As commercial and military airspace activities expand in Florida, congressional members from the state are raising concerns about fragmented communication processes and inefficiencies at the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a letter<\/a> sent Tuesday to DOT Secretary Sean Duffy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford, two dozen lawmakers representing Florida urged the agencies to create an interagency body, along with expediting modernization of the state\u2019s radar and air traffic control infrastructure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere exists a level of fragmentation and inefficiency that poses significant risk to the economic integrity of our state,\u201d the lawmakers wrote, \u201cThese proposals are essential in preserving Florida\u2019s leadership role in ensuring the United States\u2019 superiority in the global space race, and necessary to help our nation beat China in the second space race to the Moon and beyond.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The proposed interagency body, or Airspace Coordination Team (ACT), would facilitate communication and coordinate activities of commercial airspace, defense and tourism partners \u201cwho operate within the airspace and waters around Cape Canaveral.\u201d The ACT would give stakeholders more of a say and \u201censure operational confluence,\u201d the lawmakers argued.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 24 lawmakers, from both sides of the aisle, pointed out that the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center reported 93 launches last year, with nearly 1,400 orbital assets sent from Florida to space.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the demand for launches expected to significantly increase in the coming years, challenges associated with the inefficiency of communication amongst those who operate within and around the vicinity of Cape have exposed our commercial, defense, and tourism partners to unnecessary risk and delay,\u201d the lawmakers wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The letter, led by Republican Rep. Greg Steube, was signed by 22 other members of the House, and GOP Sen. Ashley Moody. Only six members of the Florida delegation did not sign the letter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lawmakers further pushed the FAA to certify the Space Data Integrator capability as operational. The SDI, according to the FAA<\/a>, is an operational prototype that will receive and distribute launch and reentry data to \u201cenable improved situational awareness and airspace management decision-making.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Traditionally, the FAA has used manual processes for communicating space data. The SDI offers an automated feature for the process. Lawmakers said the FAA\u2019s 2019 Airspace Access Priorities Advisory Rulemaking Committee recommended the agency extend air traffic control specialists\u2019 access to SDI data no later than 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the rate of space launches surge, the SDI would provide immense benefit to the entire airspace industry, given its capability to accurately track launch trajectory, reentry operations, and other data points critical to effectuating an open and safe airspace. Expedited certification and approval of the SDI is essential to meeting these needs,\u201d the letter stated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While complimenting the FAA and DOT\u2019s work to modernize the air traffic control systems, the lawmakers emphasized the promotion and incorporation of products must continue \u201cwithout unnecessary delay.\u201d The letter gives the agency until Nov. 14 to answer a series of questions about their efforts to increase coordination, the status of certifying the SDI capability and how an ACT could be created.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The DOT did not respond to FedScoop by the time of publication. The FAA responded with an automatic reply, stating the agency is not responding to \u201croutine media inquiries\u201d as a result of the government shutdown.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Miranda<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWritten by Miranda Nazzaro
\n\t\t\tMiranda Nazzaro is a reporter for FedScoop in Washington, D.C., covering government technology. Prior to joining FedScoop, Miranda was a reporter at The Hill, where she covered technology and politics. She was also a part of the digital team at WJAR-TV in Rhode Island, near her hometown in Connecticut. She is a graduate of the George Washington University School of Media and Pubic Affairs. You can reach her via email at miranda.nazzaro@fedscoop.com or on Signal at miranda.952.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As commercial and military airspace activities expand in Florida, congressional members from the state are raising concerns about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7808,7809,7810,7811,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-7349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-department-of-transportation","tag-dot","tag-faa","tag-federal-aviation-administration","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}