'Make travel family friendly again': Trump admin launches $1B effort to improve airport experience



The Trump administration's Departments of Transportation and Health and Human Services are teaming up to launch a new effort to "make travel family friendly again" by providing more family-friendly resources and healthier food options at America's airports.

On Monday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. held a press conference at Reagan National Airport to announce a new family-friendly travel campaign that will allocate $1 billion in grant funding to airports to improve the travel experience.

'I can tell you that this is where healthy diets go to die.'

Duffy provided a few examples of how the funds could be used, such as play areas for children, nursing pods for breastfeeding mothers, workout spaces, and separate security lanes for families. He noted that the funds could be used for a range of investments and that the department was open to other improvement suggestions.

"It's pretty wide open on what airports want to ask for a grant," Duffy stated.

He stated that he has also reached out to the airlines to encourage them to consider how they could improve the travel experience.

As part of the new campaign, Duffy and Kennedy are advocating for healthy food options at the nation's airports.

RELATED: Exclusive interview: DOT Secretary Duffy explains how he's making flying great again in time for Thanksgiving

Sean Duffy. Photo by Eric Lee/Getty Images

"I ... typically over the past 30 years, probably average 250 days a year in airports. And I can tell you that this is where healthy diets go to die," Kennedy said. "It's deep-fried food; it's sugar bombs; it's ultra-processed foods. And all of them are gonna leave you sicker than before you ate them."

During Monday's press conference, Duffy and Kennedy highlighted Farmer's Fridge, a company that operates vending machines offering salads, sandwiches, bowls, and oats. Luke Saunders, the CEO of Farmer's Fridge, who also attended the press conference, explained that he founded the company 12 years ago and that it now operates vending machines in over 30 U.S. airports.

"If you want to reach out to your airport authority and encourage them to participate in this money, please do that," Duffy said.

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images

Duffy noted that last week the department hired an integrator who will help convert the nation’s air travel technology from analog to digital.

In November, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stated that the Transportation Security Administration would roll out new security screening lanes at select airports for families with small children, as well as for veterans and active-duty military.

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Biden turned American airports into migrant flophouses — forcing taxpayers to foot the bill



During the peak of the Biden administration’s open-border chaos, reports surfaced that foreign nationals were sleeping on airport floors around the nation, mainly due to over-capacity at local shelters.

In June 2024, more than 100 people reportedly camped out at Boston Logan International Airport. There were also reports that immigrants were sheltering at the San Diego International Airport and Chicago O’Hare International Airport.

'This report exposes how the Biden Department of Transportation conspired with local leaders in New York, Boston, and Chicago to house migrants in airport facilities at taxpayer expense.'

A new report by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation found that the Biden administration played a role in this situation by directing multiple federal agencies to identify airports to serve as shelter space or processing facilities for foreign nationals, Fox News Digital reported on Monday. This action was directed to the Department of Transportation, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and the Federal Transit Administration.

The DOT and the FAA were reportedly instructed to “inventory available facilities,” including airports owned by the federal government and those owned locally, to “divert federal resources” to support the influx of arriving foreign nationals.

The committee found that at least 11 of the nation’s airports were pressured to allow migrants to shelter inside terminals, hangars, and auxiliary buildings, Fox News Digital reported. This pressure campaign included Boston Logan, Chicago O’Hare, and John F. Kennedy in New York.

Massport told Blaze News that it informed federal officials that the airport was “not designed or resourced to manage the intake of migrant populations,” warning that it “would create a host of unintended safety and security consequences.”

RELATED: Massachusetts to ban illegal aliens from sleeping at Boston’s Logan Airport

Jodi Hilton for The Washington Post via Getty Images

The committee highlighted an incident at the JFK Airport in 2024 in which a national from Ecuador “ran past a security post into ‘the secure area' ... toward two runways.” Security apprehended the individual, who was found in possession of a box cutter and scissors.

The report claimed that FAA officials were aware that such actions may require federal approval under grant-assurance rules, but they “ignored them most of the time when airports used their facilities to house aliens.”

RELATED: Chicago's O'Hare airport still packed with illegal immigrants despite some retreating to Venezuela over lack of amenities

Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images

“The Biden-Harris administration made airports and aviation less secure,” the committee’s report stated. It argued that the administration allowed and even encouraged “aliens to shelter at U.S. airports, by allowing improperly vetted aliens to fly into and throughout the United States, and by diverting needed federal air marshals to the border.”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), the chairman of the committee, told Fox News Digital, “This report exposes how the Biden Department of Transportation conspired with local leaders in New York, Boston, and Chicago to house migrants in airport facilities at taxpayer expense.”

“Their decisions — to transport illegal aliens through airports without identity checks, even those with felonies — shows in new detail how Biden’s open-border policy co-opted government agencies to put American citizens at risk,” Cruz said.

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The government is monitoring your feces — to protect you, of course



The federal government collects samples of wastewater to protect citizens from communicable diseases, it says.

The seldom-discussed operation is called the Traveler-based Genomic Surveillance program, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

'... 72-hour period from collection to detection is unacceptable.'

The program is twofold; the first portion involves collecting and monitoring wastewater samples from select U.S. airports.

In San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, New York City (JFK), and Washington D.C. (IAD), either airplane wastewater or airport bathroom wastewater is collected. In other cities like Newark (EWR), Miami, and Seattle, only nasal swab samples are collected from willing international travelers.

The CDC explains that samples are shipped to a laboratory for "digital polymerase chain reaction (dPCR)" testing to ensure there are no pathogens that are of concern to public health. Samples that do have certain pathogens undergo sequencing to determine variants, strains, or mutations that could be dangerous.

"Basically, if you use the washroom on a plane, they'll pull the material from the plane; the fecal matter and the urine, and we can actually run that through a device that can actually sequence it and detect the presence of a threat or whatever viral material you might have shed," Jake Adler, CEO at Pilgrim Labs, told Blaze News.

Adler, the biodefense entrepreneur behind the clay-based hemostatic dressing Kingsfoil, described the program as largely ineffective, however, that is mostly due to the sheer time it takes for the samples to make it to labs for analysis.

RELATED: Biotech founder sliced open his own legs on camera to prove his product is safe for US troops

Jimmy Arias, 46, from Venezuela, washes his face in the bathroom of a makeshift shelter operated by the city at O'Hare International Airport on Aug. 31, 2023. Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

"They're going to be pulling the wastewater, or basically the material from the bathroom, and then bringing that to a local laboratory and monitoring for the presence of viruses," Adler detailed.

"That means they have to drive roughly four hours to each portable sampling unit — which we have, I think, close to 3,000 or 3,500 across the country ... then they do the testing and then 72 hours later we know whether or not we've detected a threat. Now obviously, a 72-hour period from collection to detection is unacceptable," the CEO explained.

Adler has a solution, however. The biotech expert said he is working on a chemical threat detection system that will not only work for military operations, but would have domestic implementations, as well.

RELATED: Chinese informant allegedly alerted FBI to Wuhan lab leak in early 2020: Report

Bathroom aboard a United Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. Photo by Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Calling it Argus, Adler described the program as a "next-generation, fully autonomous and near real-time bio-surveillance platform" that detects the presence of bio-aerosols, viruses, and pathogenic bacteria in the air.

This would massively cut down on the time it takes to identify a threat, Adler told Blaze News. In airports especially, tracking the presence of viruses in the air for "real-time sequencing and analysis" to understand how the virus could spread through the population via movement patterns would be a game changer.

Adler strongly affirmed that any product released through his company would not only be safe, but it would have to be something he was willing to experience himself.

That is why, when he released Kingsfoil, the biotech entrepreneur was willing to cut his own leg open in order to showcase the product.

"I'm a human, right? So I am a relevant model," he said about testing the product on himself. Shockingly, Adler said that he has already told his team that he intends to "probably do it again, as needed."

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FAA diversity program looking to hire those with 'severe intellectual' or 'psychiatric' disabilities



The Federal Aviation Administration employs a "critical" diversity hiring program that includes a search to hire those who are described as having "severe" disabilities, including psychiatric, intellectual, and more.

"Because diversity is so critical, FAA actively supports and engages in a variety of associations, programs, coalitions and initiatives to support and accommodate employees from diverse communities and backgrounds," the FAA said on its website. The federal organization also stated that its workforce needs to proportionately represent the ethnicities of the United States:

"The mission of the FAA involves securing the skies of a diverse nation. It only makes sense that the workforce responsible for that mission reflects the nation that it serves."

Through its special program, the FAA has the stated goal of facilitating "career development, formal and informal mentoring, diversity, inclusion and social interaction."

This included a swath of gender- and race-specific programs, as well as "targeted disabilities."

"Individuals with targeted or 'severe' disabilities are the most under-represented segment of the Federal workforce," the program stated.

Among disabilities such as dwarfism, vision problems, and hearing loss, the FAA also listed "complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability," and those with a "psychiatric disability" as being targeted for hiring.

"Do you want to fly in an airplane where they prioritized DEI hiring over your safety? That is actually happening," Elon Musk wrote on X.

Do you want to fly in an airplane where they prioritized DEI hiring over your safety? That is actually happening.
— (@)

"The FAA employs tens of thousands of people for a wide range of positions, from administrative roles to oversight and execution of critical safety functions," the FAA told Fox News Digital. "Like many large employers, the agency proactively seeks qualified candidates from as many sources as possible, all of whom must meet rigorous qualifications that of course will vary by position," the statement continued.

The FAA has been under the spotlight due to recent incidents that included an Alaska Airlines flight that was forced to make an emergency landing after a section of the aircraft blew out mid-flight.

During the flight, a section of the plane's fuselage fell off, which included the panel's window. Fortunately, no passengers were sitting in the seats where the window blew out. However, cell phones were sucked out of the gaping hole and a child's shirt was ripped off from the suction.

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board have launched investigations into the situation with the Boeing 737-9 Max aircraft.

The government entity is overseen by the Department of Transportation under Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

The FAA employs approximately 45,000 people, according to Fox News.

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TSA gets brutally mocked after bragging about confiscating 'oversized' liquid containers: 'Not all heroes wear capes'



The Transportation Security Administration was brutally mocked Wednesday after boasting about the confiscation of liquids at an airport security checkpoint.

What happened?

Lisa Farbstein, a TSA spokesperson, posted a picture of liquids that TSA officers confiscated from travelers going through security at the Syracuse Airport.

The picture — which included drinks, personal hygiene products, and even snow globes — showed the confiscated products sprawled out in front of a lectern, apparently on display for a public service announcement regarding TSA liquid rules.

"Display of oversized liquids, gels and aerosols that travelers had in their carry-on bags at the ⁦@SyracuseAirport⁩ @TSA Checkpoint in a 3-day span," Farbstein tweeted. "The limit for liquids through a checkpoint is 3.4 oz."

\u201cDisplay of oversized liquids, gels and aerosols that travelers had in their carry-on bags at the \u2066@SyracuseAirport\u2069 @TSA Checkpoint in a 3-day span. The limit for liquids through a checkpoint is 3.4 oz.\u201d
— Lisa Farbstein, TSA Spokesperson (@Lisa Farbstein, TSA Spokesperson) 1655920655

TSA rules state:

You are allowed to bring a quart-sized bag of liquids, aerosols, gels, creams and pastes in your carry-on bag and through the checkpoint. These are limited to travel-sized containers that are 3.4 ounces (100 milliliters) or less per item. Placing these items in the small bag and separating from your carry-on baggage facilitates the screening process. Pack items that are in containers larger than 3.4 ounces or 100 milliliters in checked baggage.

What was the reaction?

The picture generated thousands of responses, most of which mocked the TSA for enforcing allegedly "arbitrary rules."

  • "I am curious: Did any of these items end up containing anything that would've threatened the lives of plane passengers? Or is this just bragging about arbitrary confiscation of people's property, at a time when it's harder for families to afford food, drinks, & toiletries?" one person reacted.
  • "Thank GOD. Someone needs to protect us all from snow globes and Capri Suns," one person mocked.
  • "But you can purchase nearly all of those items in similar sizes on the other side of security, at 2-3x the price," one person noted.
  • "Imagine stealing someone's souvenir snow globe & thinking that you're the good guy," another person said.
  • "Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear elbow braces because of repetitive strain injury due to patting themselves on the back for safely confiscating your 150 ml sunscreen," another person mocked.
  • "It will never stop being hilarious that they confiscate these items allegedly in case they are dangerous then store them all next to each other," another person observed.
  • "Thank you for keeping us safe from people who want to hydrate, apply lotion, or brush their teeth, Lisa," another person mocked.
  • "The fact that they are all assembled there instead of detonated in a bomb disposal unit tells you they know these are safe and the policy is theatre only," one person observed.
  • "It's amazing that our tax dollars are paying the TSA employees' salaries, and when they want to brag about a job well done, the best they can come up with is, 'We inconvenienced lots of people who just wanted to pack enough toothpaste for the whole family,'" another person said.

While the 3.4 ounce rule feels arbitrary, apparently there is good reason for it. The small size of the container, in fact, would prevent a destructive explosion if someone attempted to detonate explosives on a plane via a liquids container.

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