Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen has slammed Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy for blaming Congress over the funding shortfall he said contributed to Friday’s nationwide ground stop, arguing that lawmakers had already approved the money requested by the Trump administration.Speaking to CNN’s Dana Bash on State of the Union, Van Hollen said Duffy’s response to the disruption was to shift responsibility to Congress, despite the administration having received billions of dollars through legislation passed by Republicans.“Unfortunately Secretary Duffy’s first response just the other day was to point fingers and blame Congress,” Van Hollen said. He added that Congress had met the administration’s funding request and that Republicans had included $12.5 billion for the department in their so-called “Big Beautiful Bill”.Van Hollen also questioned how much of that allocation had been used, saying the administration had spent only about one-third of the money.“So it’s really rich to hear the secretary pointing the fingers at Congress when Congress has given the administration what they asked for,” he told Bash.The Maryland senator said he would support additional funding if it was necessary, but insisted that administration officials should explain their requirements to lawmakers before receiving more money. He called on them to come to Congress and justify the additional request.Duffy, meanwhile, has urged Congress to provide his department with another $50 billion, arguing that the money was needed to support infrastructure development. He called on lawmakers to set aside political differences and scrutinise how the funds would be spent.“Let’s put away the partisanship. Just do oversight on me. Ask how I’m going to spend the money. Make sure I spend the money well. But give me the resources to actually build on behalf of the American people,” Duffy said.The exchange followed Friday’s nationwide ground stop and the travel disruption that came after it. Duffy said President Donald Trump had been closely involved in the administration’s response, despite not publicly addressing the incident on social media until Sunday.