The White House and the Department of Transportation urged Congress on Friday to approve a further 30.1 billion dollars to upgrade the country’s airports and air traffic control system, Reuters reported. The request, from budget director Russell Vought and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, seeks 10.1 billion dollars for air traffic control modernisation, including 7.2 billion for a common automation platform and controller workstations and 2 billion for cloud computing, plus 2 billion for control towers and 18 billion for airport projects including 10 billion to modernise or replace ageing terminals. Congress approved 12.5 billion dollars over five years in July 2025. The administration wants action in the final weeks of the Republican led Congress, before Democrats take control in January.
Alaska’s Senate race, the only one still uncalled, held steady ahead of the next count release due Friday. Democrat Mary Peltola leads Republican Senator Dan Sullivan by 4,250 votes, 118,926 to 114,676, with about 84 percent of votes tallied on the Associated Press estimate. On Wednesday a state judge denied the Peltola campaign’s request for the names of voters whose absentee ballots were rejected, citing the ongoing count. Overseas ballots can arrive until November 18, when the ranked choice tabulation is scheduled if no candidate passes 50 percent of first choice votes; certification is targeted for November 25.
The Treasury’s sanctions office published two sets of general licences in the Federal Register on Friday. Document 2026-23197 publishes Iran related web general licences EE and FF, and document 2026-23196 publishes general licences 55F and 115D under the Russian Harmful Foreign Activities Sanctions Regulations. General licences are standing authorisations for transactions that would otherwise be prohibited; publication in the Register is the formal record of licences already issued on OFAC’s website.
Justice Samuel Alito, speaking to the Federalist Society on Thursday, warned that Congress could turn off the lights at the Supreme Court by defunding its activities, and defended judicial independence as the incoming Democratic Congress weighs court oversight. The remark was reported by The Hill; no congressional defunding proposal exists, and the item is carried as a notable statement rather than a policy development.