{"id":173947,"date":"2026-02-21T05:25:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T05:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/173947\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T05:25:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T05:25:13","slug":"duffy-will-brief-congress-next-week-on-el-paso-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/173947\/","title":{"rendered":"Duffy Will Brief Congress Next Week on El Paso Shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"bloomberg\">Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he will brief lawmakers on Capitol Hill next week about the temporary closure of airspace around El Paso, Texas, earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p>Duffy told reporters Friday that he stood behind the Federal Aviation Administration\u2019s decision, despite the controversy that followed the action.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWas it a mistake to close the airspace?\u201d a reporter asked during a press conference on an unrelated topic in Washington, to which Duffy replied: \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/southcentral\/2026\/02\/12\/857839.htm\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Drones, Drugs, Laser Beams Stir Confusion Over Texas Skies<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The FAA imposed flight restrictions, which drew backlash from local officials and were initially intended to last 10 days, on Feb. 10 but lifted them the following day.<\/p>\n<p>Administration officials, including Duffy, said the closure happened because drones from Mexican drug cartels breached US airspace.<\/p>\n<p>Others familiar with the events said the FAA was concerned about the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s use of a military counter-drone laser system and the possible safety implications for nearby civilian aircraft. They said the system\u2019s operation wasn\u2019t coordinated with the FAA.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday, Duffy denied there was a lack of communication between the agencies involved. When asked about the veracity of his initial statement about a Mexican drug cartel drone breach, he said: \u201cI use information that I get.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Duffy declined to provide further information about the event, saying he first wanted to discuss the matter with members of Congress who have asked for a classified briefing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think we owe a conversation with the Hill before I have a conversation with you,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n<p>Top photo: Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy. Bloomberg.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Bloomberg.<\/p>\n<p>            The most important insurance news,in your inbox every business day.<\/p>\n<p>Get the insurance industry&#8217;s trusted newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he will brief lawmakers on Capitol Hill next week about the temporary closure&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139,2399,504,65894],"class_list":["post-173947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news","tag-faa","tag-federal-aviation-administration","tag-transportation-secretary-sean-duffy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}