November 14, 2026
Lawmakers sought an audit before SMART expanded nationwide. A review of federal records examines the rollout, a contractor PAC’s campaign contribution and Duffy’s explanation for Friday’s shutdown.
WASHINGTON — A month before Friday’s nationwide departure shutdown, 23 House Democrats asked federal auditors to examine the Federal Aviation Administration’s new artificial intelligence planning software, raising concerns about safety reviews, training and the involvement of frontline aviation workers.
Their October 13 audit request preceded the FAA’s November 10 announcement that SMART would expand to airspace managed by all 22 of its centers. Three days after that announcement, communications problems prompted a nationwide ground stop.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has explicitly denied that SMART caused the disruption. The agency statements, campaign filing and federal contracting data reviewed by VOTP News STL do not establish that a contractor PAC’s contribution to his son-in-law’s campaign influenced the award.
The shutdown and Duffy’s explanation
The FAA’s November 13 advisory ordered departing traffic to remain on the ground. Aircraft already airborne landed under established procedures, according to Duffy. He announced that airspace reopened at 7:15 p.m. Central, while warning that airline schedules would take time to recover.
At the White House briefing, Duffy attributed the disruption to overloaded switches and routers in the aging telecommunications network. He said newly installed equipment remained operational and described SMART as separate from the affected systems.
“It’s the old hardware that went down,” Duffy said, according to the Transportation Department’s briefing excerpts.
That is the administration’s explanation. VOTP News STL had not located an independent technical after-action report establishing the root cause as of November 14.
What the contract is worth
On June 22, DOT announced the FAA’s selection of Air Space Intelligence for SMART and Flow Management Data and Services, a related air traffic management platform.
The USAspending record for contract 693KA726C00064, checked November 14, lists a potential value of $875.95 million through June 2038 and $23.34 million obligated. The potential value is the amount the contract could reach; obligations are funding commitments, not a measure of cash already paid.
The record lists 12 offers received. It does not, by itself, reveal how proposals were scored or establish that the selection was improper.
The contribution in the campaign filing
An original first-quarter FEC filing for Alfonso for Congress records a $2,500 contribution from Air Space Intelligence, Inc. PAC on March 31. Page 100 identifies the receipt as transaction SA11C.4281.
Michael Alfonso is Duffy’s son-in-law, married to his daughter Evita, as The Associated Press reported in July. The filing documents money received by a campaign committee; it does not show a personal payment to Alfonso or Duffy.
The receipt predates the contract announcement by 83 days. A social media video reviewed by VOTP News STL claims $12,500 was contributed in March, but this review has not reconciled records supporting that larger figure. The verified $2,500 receipt should not be treated as a complete election-cycle total.
Congress raised questions before the outage
The October 13 letter, led by Reps. Rick Larsen and André Carson, asked the Government Accountability Office to assess safety risk analysis, operational testing, performance measures and deployment strategy for SMART and the related platform. The members also questioned workers’ involvement and training.
Those were lawmakers’ concerns and a request for examination. The letter was not a completed GAO audit or a finding that either platform caused an operational failure.
SMART stands for Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories. The FAA describes it as a cloud-based platform combining about 200 data streams, including weather, flight paths and controller staffing. FAA specialists analyze and validate its data and send scheduling recommendations through the Command Center for local leadership to consider. The agency’s description places people in the decision process.
The sequence in the public record
The records still needed
The procurement and the outage require separate answers. Source-selection records and any applicable ethics reviews could clarify how the contract was awarded. A reconciled contribution ledger is needed to establish the full amount of relevant campaign giving.
Technical incident logs and an after-action report would allow scrutiny of the failed equipment, its connections to other systems and the basis for excluding SMART. The chronology establishes when events occurred. It does not establish that a donation purchased a contract or that the software caused the shutdown.
This report draws on the linked public records and official statements checked November 14, 2026. The congressional document is an audit request, and Duffy’s root-cause explanation is attributed to him.
Earlier VOTP News STL coverage: The November 13 ground-stop announcement.
