House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has a simple message after Friday's nationwide FAA ground stop: don't investigate, invest.

"We don't really need any investigation … we need further investment," Johnson said Saturday on Fox News' "Saturday in America." He pointed out that some of the equipment in question dates to the 1980s. Which, to be fair, is also when some of us last felt truly rested.

A Router Walks Into a Fiber Line

Government officials said Saturday that a single router installed by L3Harris Technologies Inc. (NYSE:LHX) may have caused the outage, Reuters reported. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the cause remains undetermined.

Duffy said Friday the contractor was switching lines from copper wire to fiber. In a statement, L3Harris said it has completed more than 70% of that conversion and is supporting the FAA's investigation.

Here's where it gets fun. Duffy said the new routers flooded others with over 1,000 connection attempts every four to five seconds. The routers being replaced are about 25 years old, Duffy said, and were due for replacement in 2006. So the upgrade is running roughly two decades behind schedule, which is one way to describe government procurement.

A Rare Stoppage, and a Lot of Stranded Passengers

The FAA issued the ground stop around 4 p.m. EST Friday. Duffy said it was lifted around 8:15 p.m. The agency's last widespread stoppage lasted about 90 minutes in January 2023.

As of 9:25 p.m. EST Saturday, FlightAware data showed 8,048 delays and 6,445 cancellations within, into or out of the U.S. That is a lot of people eating overpriced airport pretzels.

Duffy Wants $50 Billion

On Friday, Duffy called the system "incredibly old" and said, "I want $50 billion." Congress has already given the FAA $12.5 billion for upgrades.

In a Saturday post on X, Duffy called modernization a "national safety priority." He said Congress needs to step up with resources to build a "state-of-the-art system."

Greene and Torres Aren't Buying It

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) criticized the $50 billion funding request. In a long post on X on Saturday, she said she was "blown away" by people who "fell for the total garbage" at Friday's press conference, and said officials lied about what happened.

She said the systems need updating and "it takes money," but that officials have "plenty of money."

Rep. Norma Torres (D-Calif.) wrote on X, "Before asking taxpayers for more, this administration owes answers about how existing funds are being spent and why our aviation system is still falling behind."

So the fight is on: Johnson says write the check, Greene and Torres say show the receipts first. Meanwhile, the routers are still out there, blinking.