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Wall Street rallies to its best day in months, but that’s not enough to salvage its losing week

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. rallied to their best day in months on Friday as ‘s roller coaster suddenly shot back upward. That still wasn’t enough to keep the U.S. from a fourth straight losing week, its longest such streak since August.

The jumped 2.1% a day after closing more than 10% below its record for its first “ correction ” since 2023. The last time the index shot up that much was the day after President Donald Trump’s election, when Wall Street was focusing on the upsides of ‘s return to the White House.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 674 points, or 1.7%, and the Nasdaq composite jumped 2.6%.

A multi-day “relief rally could be coming” after so much negativity built among investors, said Yung-Yu Ma, chief investment officer at BMO Wealth Management. Swings in sentiment don’t go full-tilt in just one direction forever, and the U.S. stock market has been tumbling quickly since setting a record less than a month ago.

One piece of uncertainty hanging over Wall Street may be clearing after the Senate made moves to prevent a possible partial shutdown of the U.S. government.

Past shutdowns have not been a huge deal for financial markets. But any reduction of uncertainty can be helpful when so much of it has been sending the U.S. stock market on big, scary swings not just day to day but also hour to hour.

To be sure, the heaviest uncertainty remains with Trump’s escalating trade war. There, the question is how much pain Trump will let the economy endure through and other policies in order to reshape the country and world as he wants. The president has said he wants manufacturing jobs back in the United States, along with a smaller U.S. government workforce and other fundamental changes.

While may be close to finishing their reset to account for tariffs set to hit in April, Ma said concerns about how big an impact cutbacks in federal spending will have on the are “likely to remain for some time.”

U.S. households and businesses have already reported drops in confidence because of all the uncertainties created by Trump’s barrage of on -again, off -again tariff announcements and other policies. That’s raised fears about a pullback in spending that could sap energy from the economy.

Worries look to be only worsening among U.S. households, according to a preliminary survey released Friday by the University of Michigan. Its measure of consumer sentiment sank for a third straight month, mostly because of concerns about the future rather than complaints about the present. The job market and overall economy look relatively solid at the moment.

“Many consumers cited the high level of uncertainty around policy and other economic factors,” according to Joanne Hsu, direct of the survey, and “frequent gyrations in economic policies make it very difficult for consumers to plan for the future, regardless of one’s policy preferences.”

Such fears have Wall Street focused on whether companies are seeing the souring mood of consumers translating into real pain for their businesses.

Ulta Beauty jumped 13.7% after the beauty products retailer reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

The company’s forecasts for upcoming revenue and profit fell short of analysts’ targets, but Chief Financial Officer Paula Oyibo said it wanted to be cautious “as we navigate ongoing consumer uncertainty.” Analysts said the forecasts appeared better than feared.

Gains for Big Tech stocks and companies in the artificial-intelligence industry also helped support the market. Such stocks have been under the most pressure in the recent sell-off after critics said their prices shot too high in the frenzy around AI.

Nvidia rose 5.3% to trim its loss for 2025 so far below 10%. Apple climbed 1.8% to pare its loss for the week, which at one point had been on pace to be its worst since the 2020 COVID .

All told, the S&P 500 rose 117.42 points to 5,638.94. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 674.62 to 41,488.19, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 451.07 to 17,754.09.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.

Stocks jumped 2.1% in Hong Kong and 1.8% in Shanghai after China’s National Financial Regulatory Administration issued a notice ordering financial institutions to help develop consumer finance and encourage use of credit cards, do more to aid borrowers who run into trouble and be more transparent in their practices.

Economists say China needs consumers to spend more to get the economy out of its doldrums, although most have advocated broader, more fundamental reforms.

In the bond market, Treasury yields rose to recover some of their sharp recent losses. The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.31% from 4.27% late Thursday and from 4.16% at the start of last week.

Yields have been swinging since January, when the 10-year yield was approaching 4.80%. When worries worsen about the U.S. economy’s strength, yields have fallen. When those worries lessen, or when concerns about inflation rise, yields have climbed.

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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

Trump probes lumber, timber imports for potential tariffs; names furniture as derivative product

WASHINGTON – Does the U.S.’ reliance on imported lumber and constitute a threat to national security? That’s what the Administration aims to find out through a new executive order.

“The wood products industry – composed of timber, lumber, and their derivative products (such as paper products, , and cabinetry) – is a critical manufacturing industry essential to the national security, economic strength and industrial resilience of the United States,” the order states. “This industry plays a vital role in key downstream civilian industries, including construction.”

Specifically, the order directs Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnik to investigate whether imports of timber and lumber and their derivative products threaten national security; recommend actions to mitigate such threats, including potential , export controls or incentives to increase domestic production; and recommend policies to strengthen U.S. timber and lumber production through strategic investments and “permitting reforms.”

Lutnik has until Nov. 26 to conclude his .

Trump says the U.S. has ample timber resources, citing that the softwood lumber industry “has the practical production capacity to supply 95%” of the country’s 2024 softwood consumption, yet has remained a net importer since 2016.

The order goes on to define timber as wood that has not yet been processed and lumber as wood that’s been processed, including wood that’s been milled and cut into boards and planks.

The order follows a similar probe into the copper industry, as well as widespread 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum, which also were implemented out of concern over national security.

FTC reverses its request for a delay in an Amazon trial, says it has resources to litigate the case

A lawyer for the Federal Commission has walked back his comments about a lack of resources and staff turnover interfering with the agency’s preparations for a trial involving ‘s Prime program.

lawyer Jonathan Cohen asked a federal judge during a hearing on Wednesday to delay the September trial and relax deadlines in the case, citing budgetary and staffing shortfalls. But Cohen did an about-face later in the day, telling a U.S. District judge in a brief letter that the statements he made in court were incorrect. In a statement sent to The Associated Press on Thursday, FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson also said “the attorney was wrong.”

A lawyer for the has walked back his comments about a lack of resources and staff turnover interfering with the agency’s preparations for a trial involving Amazon’s Prime program.

FTC lawyer Jonathan Cohen asked a federal judge during a hearing on Wednesday to delay the September trial and relax deadlines in the case, citing budgetary and staffing shortfalls.

But Cohen did an about-face later in the day, telling U.S. District Judge John Chun in a brief letter that the statements he made in court were incorrect.

“I want to clarify comments I made today: I was wrong,” Cohen wrote in the letter. “The commission does not have resource constraints and we are fully prepared to litigate this case.”

In a statement sent to The Associated Press on Thursday, FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson also said “the attorney was wrong.”

“I have made it clear since Day 1 that we will commit the resources necessary for this case,” Ferguson said, adding that the FTC “will never back down from taking on Big Tech.”

An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment on the agency’s reversal.

Cohen made his original comments while seeking to postpone a trial stemming from a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit that accused Amazon of enrolling consumers in its Prime program without their consent and making it difficult for them to cancel their subscriptions.

With the request coming amid the cost-cutting efforts driven by ‘s Department of Government Efficiency, or , the judge asked if budget and staff reductions at federal agencies had affected the FTC’s readiness.

Cohen said some employees chose to leave the FTC following the “Fork in the road” email sent by the administration in January. Staff members who resigned for other reasons also have not been replaced due to a government hiring freeze, he said.

He also cited restrictive rules on purchasing court documents and travel.

Completed home sales decrease in Feb. for NoVa, Hampton Roads

Housing sales in February decreased year-over-year in and . Inventory and median selling prices increased in both regions.

Northern Virginia

Closed sales in Northern Virginia decreased year-over-year in February, according to data released March 11. The median home price and active listings rose compared to the same month in 2024.

Last month, 937 sold in Northern Virginia, an 8.1% decrease from February 2024. New pending sales fell 6.7% from February 2024, to 1,098 units.

However, inventory in February sharply increased, according to .  The month’s supply of inventory (MSI) — a measure of how many months there would be homes on the if no new inventory were added — increased to 1.12, up 29% from the same month last year.

There were 1,520 active listings on the Northern Virginia market in February, up 31.8% year-over-year. New listings, though, totaled 1,207 units, a 3.83% decrease over the same month in 2024.

“The increase in active listings is an encouraging development for prospective homebuyers who have been faced with limited options in recent years,” Casey Menish, NVAR President and a Realtor with Pearson Smith Realty, stated in a news release. “A boost in inventory not only helps create a more balanced market but also opens doors for buyers who may have been sidelined by fierce competition or rising prices. This shift could provide much-needed opportunities for those eager to make their move.”

Homes spent an average of 22 days on the market last month, the same as the previous year.

The median sold price last month was $732,750, up 6.6% compared with February 2024.

A chart visualizes NoVA
February 2025 housing market statistics for Northern Virginia. Image courtesy Northern Virginia Association of Realtors

“The Northern Virginia market is adjusting to changing economic conditions, with buyers and sellers navigating shifts in affordability and inventory,” Ryan McLaughlin, CEO of NVAR, said in a statement. “While closed sales have slowed, the steady median home price suggests ongoing demand for well-priced properties.”

Leaders in the industry continue to watch to see whether layoffs in the federal workforce will affect the area’s housing market.

“While speculation continues about the impact of changes in the federal workforce on the local housing market, it remains to be seen how these shifts will fully influence demand and market trends,” McLaughlin stated. “As we continue to monitor the situation, we remain focused on broader economic factors shaping the market.”

NVAR reports home sales activity for Fairfax and counties, the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax and Falls Church, and the towns of Vienna, Herndon and Clifton.

Hampton Roads

Housing sales in Hampton Roads dropped year-over-year in February; however, inventory increased, according to data released March 10 by the ().

Closed home sales in the region totaled 1,551 last month, down 9.25% from the 1,709 closed sales recorded in February 2024; although, that was an increase from the 1,389 closed sales recorded in January 2025.

Graphic with details of Hampton Roads' real estate market in February 2025
February 2025 housing market data for Hampton Roads. Image courtesy Information Network

There were 1,875 pending sales February, down from 2,040 in the same month last year but up from 1,748 in January.

Active listings totaled 4,340 in February — a 21.6% increase year-over-year in homes for sale. In February 2024, there were 3,568 active listings, and in January there were 4,366 active listings. The MSI stood at 2.12, the same as it was in January. The MSI was 1.73 in February 2024.

The median sales price in Hampton Roads was $345,000 in February, up from $327,500 in February 2024 and $340,000 in January.

Homes spent a median of 28 days on the market in February, a six day increase over February 2024 and a one-day increase over January.

“The number of active listings is up nearly 22% from the same month last year,” said REIN Board President Barbara Wolcott of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services RW Towne Realty. “When consumers have more choices, they don’t feel quite as much pressure to make a quick decision.”

Founded in 1969, REIN is a regional multiple listing service that covers an area stretching from Williamsburg east to Virginia Beach and south across the North Carolina border.

Average US rate on a 30-year mortgage edges higher, ending a seven-week slide

The average rate on a 30-year in the U.S. edged higher this week, ending a seven-week slide that helped ease borrowing costs for home shoppers just in time for the spring season. The average rate rose to 6.65% from 6.63% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday, March 13.

A year ago, it averaged 6.74%. After climbing to just above 7% in mid-January, the average rate has been declining, echoing moves in the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans. However, the pullback in hasn’t improved the affordability equation for many would-be homebuyers, keeping the housing in a sales slump.

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage in the U.S. edged higher this week, ending a seven-week slide that helped ease borrowing costs for home shoppers leading into the spring homebuying season.

The rate averaged 6.65% this week, up from 6.63% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, it averaged 6.74%.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners seeking to refinance their home loan to a lower rate, also ticked up this week. The average rate rose to 5.8% from 5.79% last week. A year ago, it averaged 6.16%, Freddie Mac said.

Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, including bond market investors’ expectations for future inflation, global demand for U.S. Treasurys and the ‘s interest rate policy decisions.

After climbing to just above 7% in mid-January, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage declined through last week, echoing moves in the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.

The yield, which was approaching 4.8% in mid-January, has been mostly falling since then, reflecting worries about the ‘s growth and the fallout from the administration’s decision to impose on imported goods from many of the nation’s key partners. The yield was at 4.31% in midday trading Thursday.

Tariffs can drive inflation higher, which could translate into higher yields on the 10-year Treasury note, pushing up mortgage rates. That’s because bond investors demand higher returns as long as inflation remains elevated.

On Thursday, the Labor Department said that U.S. wholesale inflation last month was milder than economists expected. That followed a similarly encouraging report from the day before showing inflation at the consumer level slowed in February for the first time since September.

Still, the Fed, which is scheduled to give its latest interest rate policy update next Wednesday, has signaled that it intends to take a more cautious approach as it gauges where inflation is headed and what impact the Trump administration’s policies on trade, taxes and other fronts will have on the economy.

So far, the pullback in rates hasn’t improved the affordability equation for many would-be homebuyers, keeping the housing market in a sales slump.
Still, as rates have eased in recent weeks, more would-be homebuyers have been applying for a home loan.

Last week, mortgage applications jumped 11.2% from the previous week and 31% compared to a year earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. And a measure of home loan refinancing applications surged 16%, the said.

While a pickup in mortgage applications is typical for this time of year, the sharp increase suggests the pullback in mortgage rates is encouraging would-be homebuyers.

Home shoppers who can afford to buy at current home loan rates or to sidestep them entirely by paying cash also stand to benefit from a wider selection of properties on the market. The inventory of homes for sale has risen sharply from a year ago and prices are rising more slowly nationally and declining in many metropolitan areas, such as Austin, Dallas and Tampa, Florida.

“The combination of modestly lower mortgage rates and improving inventory is a positive sign for homebuyers in this critical spring homebuying season,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist.

More than 50 universities face federal investigations as part of Trump’s anti-DEI campaign

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 50 are being investigated for alleged racial discrimination as part of President Donald ‘s campaign to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs that his officials say exclude white and Asian American students.

The Department announced the new investigations Friday, one month after issuing a memo warning America’s schools and colleges that they could lose federal money over “race-based preferences” in admissions, scholarships or any aspect of student life.

“Students must be assessed according to merit and accomplishment, not prejudged by the color of their skin,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. “We will not yield on this commitment.”

Most of the new inquiries are focused on colleges’ partnerships with the PhD Project, a nonprofit that helps students from underrepresented groups get degrees in business with the goal of diversifying the business world.

Department officials said that the group limits eligibility based on race and that colleges that partner with it are “engaging in race-exclusionary practices in their graduate programs.”

The group of 45 colleges facing scrutiny over ties to the PhD Project include major public universities such as Arizona State, Ohio State and Rutgers, along with prestigious private schools like Yale, Cornell, Duke and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. is the only Virginia school listed.

A statement from Ohio State said the university “does not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity or any other protected class, and our PhD programs are open to all qualified applicants.”

A message sent to the PhD Project was not immediately returned.

Six other colleges are being investigated for awarding “impermissible race-based scholarships,” the department said, and another is accused of running a program that segregates students on the basis of race.

The Education Department said those schools are: Grand Valley State University, Ithaca College, the New England College of Optometry, the University of Alabama, the University of Minnesota, the University of South Florida and the University of Oklahoma at Tulsa.

An initial press release from the Education Department erroneously identified the University of Tulsa as one of the schools under .

The Feb. 14 memo from Trump’s Republican administration was a sweeping expansion of a 2023 Supreme Court decision that barred colleges from using race as a factor in admissions.

That decision focused on admissions policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, but the Education Department said it will interpret the decision to forbid race-based policies in any aspect of education, both in K-12 schools and .

In the memo, Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, had said schools’ and colleges’ diversity, equity and inclusion efforts have been “smuggling racial stereotypes and explicit race-consciousness into everyday training, programming and discipline.”

The memo is being challenged in federal lawsuits from the nation’s two largest teachers’ unions. The suits say the memo is too vague and violates the free speech rights of educators.

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The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find the AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Skanska completes offshore wind staging project at Port of Virginia

New York-based construction company announced Thursday that it has completed a $223 million redevelopment project for the , upgrading 72 acres of and 1,500 feet of wharf that now serves as an offshore wind staging .

-based will use the terminal staging port for its $10.7 billion project. According to Skanska, the terminal serves as a collection and storage site for wind turbine components, which are then transferred to installation vessels.

“We are proud to support the vital role of the Virginia Port Authority and Dominion’s work to build clean energy infrastructure, in this case enough wind energy to power 660,000 a year,” said Brook Brookshire, senior vice president of Skanska USA civil operations said in a statement. “This project strengthens vital port infrastructure while advancing sustainable energy production and benefiting local communities through job creation.”

Skanska began work on the project in 2022 and substantially completed it in March. The work involved constructing three heavy lift berths: the wind turbine generator delivery berth, the wind turbine generator load-out berth and the berth for the steel tube monopiles.

Other tasks completed included strengthening the soils and surface in the upland areas to accommodate heavy surface loadings and driving 1,335 150-foot-long piles and pouring 26,500 cubic yards of concrete. Skanska also installed high mast lighting, stormwater collection systems and other ancillary structures and systems.

Virginia Port Authority CEO and Executive Director Stephen Edwards said that Skanska delivered the project on time and on budget.

The CVOW calls for the construction of 176 wind turbines 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach by 2026. Once the project is fully constructed, it will generate up to 9.5 million megawatt-hours per year of energy, enough to power up to 660,000 homes, according to Dominion.

Once Dominion Energy completes the CVOW project, which includes assembling and installing offshore turbines, they will generate 2.6 gigawatts of energy.

Skanska USA, the U.S. subsidiary of the Swedish parent company, is headquartered in New York City with 28 offices around the country and 6,500 employees. Globally, Skanska has 27,000 employees.

Henrico County’s $2.3B GreenCity project is dead

The $2.3 billion GreenCity development in is dead, as the developers of the project failed to make more than $5 million in overdue payments by a March 13 deadline, the county said Friday.

The county previously sent two notices of default — one in regard to the property purchase agreement and one relating to the development agreement — to the developers of the planned 220-acre GreenCity mixed-use development, which was proposed in 2020 as an environmentally friendly development that would be anchored by a 17,000-seat sports and entertainment arena. It was expected to include two hotels with 600 rooms, about 2.2 million square feet of office space, 280,000 square feet of retail space, 2,100 residential units, and green space and plazas.

The developers were Michael Hallmark of Los Angeles-based Future Cities and Susan Eastridge of Falls Church-based Concord Eastridge, who head development entities Partners and Green City Development Corp. LLC. They did not immediately return calls seeking comment Friday.

Henrico County announced in a statement that it will reacquire the property from the Green City developers, saying the parties “have mutually agreed to go in a different direction, and the developers will expeditiously work to transfer the property back to the county and terminate the existing agreements.”

The county says the process will take roughly 30 days, noting that this transfer “will ultimately set the stage for the Best Products site to thrive as a large, mixed-use development anchored by a privately funded arena.”

On Feb. 15, county Manager John Vithoulkas sent the developers a notice of default on a development agreement between the county, the economic development authority and the developers, following a nonperformance notice sent in December 2024. Under the development agreement, Green City Partners had a 60-day cure period to address the nonperformance.

A March 3 default notice revealed that Green City Development Corp. failed to make the final payment on the roughly 93-acre land, the site of the former Best Products headquarters, for the planned arena. More than $5.22 million was due Feb. 28.

The purchase agreement between the county’s economic development authority and the developers included an initial payment of $500,000 due on Feb. 28, 2023, and a second payment of the same amount due Feb. 28, 2024.

GCDC had a 10-day cure period for the remaining payment from receipt of the March 3 notice. If the developers failed to make the payment by March 13, the EDA had the right to repurchase undeveloped property and has “all rights and remedies available at law and in equity.”

Henrico said Friday that once the repurchase process on the Best Products property is complete, it plans to work with interested arena operators and developers “to make the vision a reality.”

“The need is abundantly clear,” Henrico County said in its statement. “Our region remains the most underserved community along Interstate 95 in terms of a venue capable of hosting large concerts, sporting events, and other family entertainment. This economic development and tourism project will also bring more quality housing, hotels, and commercial cores to the county, making it a destination center.”

Henrico says it’s eager to move forward and will be working closely with the economic development authority and Henrico Sports & Entertainment Authority to identify “a proven, competent, and capitalized development partner or partners with both the vision and the capacity to deliver a world-class private development for our community.”

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

Bon Secours hires new chief clinical officer for Richmond market

Dr. David Hasleton is the new chief clinical officer for ‘ , the health system announced Thursday.

In this role, Hasleton will oversee clinical operations, working with clinical teams, operational leaders and physicians and advanced practice clinicians.

Most recently, Hasleton served as chief officer for Intermountain Health, a health system headquartered in Utah. In that role he oversaw clinical and operational outcomes across five states.

Hasleton earned his medical degree and from the University of Illinois College of Medicine.

“I am confident that his strategic vision, dedication to patient safety and commitment to quality will further enhance our mission to deliver exceptional care to our communities,” Bon Secours Richmond President Mike Lutes said in a statement.

The Bon Secours Richmond Health System offers a network of seven acute hospitals, primary and specialty care practices, ambulatory care sites and continuing care facilities across a 24-locality region.

Close calls at Washington DC airport raise questions about why changes weren’t made before crash

WASHINGTON (AP) — While Congress pushed ahead last year with adding 10 new daily flights to Washington, D.C.’s , many looked past concerns about dangers in the congested skies over the nation’s capital.

Squeezing in more flights would only increase the risks, said Virginia’s two senators, who called a near miss between two planes on a runway of the last April a “flashing red warning light.”

What wasn’t publicly known at the time — and didn’t surface until this week during the into the January midair collision between an airliner and military helicopter that killed 67 — was that close calls at the airport were far more frequent than travelers and aviation experts knew.

Now, safety experts and family members who lost loved ones in the Jan. 29 are asking why no one acted in the face of what appeared to be a looming disaster.

The National Transportation Safety Board said pilots were alerted to take evasive action to avoid hitting helicopters at least once a month from 2011 through 2024, citing data compiled by the Federal Aviation Administration, and that there were 85 near misses when aircraft were within a few hundred feet (meters) of each other during recent years.

“How does that happen in this day and age and somebody doesn’t do something about it?” asked Doug Lane, whose wife, Christine Conrad Lane, and their 16-year-old son, Spencer, died in the crash.

Pilots have long worried about the congested and complex airspace around the airport near the heart of the capital, where flights must maneuver around military aircraft and restricted areas. It was no secret there had been previous close calls, but the numbers found by the NTSB were alarming.

“Why someone was not paying attention to those numbers and those events are questions yet to be answered,” said James Hall, a former NTSB chair during the Clinton administration.

“What not to do is to ignore that many incidents,” he said.

officials have not yet addressed whether they knew there were so many encounters between planes and helicopters at Reagan National. Messages seeking comment were not immediately returned Thursday.

Current NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who oversees the FAA, both said they were angry that the number of close calls were not recognized earlier by the FAA.

“If someone was paying attention, someone was on the job, they would have seen this,” Duffy said. He also announced he will move forward with banning some helicopter flights around the airport, a move that was temporarily made after the crash.

Safety advocate Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general of the U.S. Transportation Department, said that while there was plenty of blame to go around for the midair collision, the FAA was shockingly complacent.

“They literally wait for a disaster,” she said. ”I can’t even fathom how the families of those lost in this crash can even deal with this. I mean this would be so maddening to hear.”

The crowded airspace around Washington drew attention last year when Congress debated an aviation safety bill that allowed 10 more flights a day at Reagan National, despite strong objections from Virginia’s Democratic senators, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner.

Kaine, during a speech on the Senate floor, didn’t mention specific concerns about encounters between airliners and helicopters or cite any statistics, but he did say the congestion was “a problem waiting to happen.”

While Congress did OK the extra flights, they had not started as of the deadly January collision.

The FAA limits arrival and departure slots at three of the nation’s busiest airports, where demand exceeds the airport’s capacity: Reagan National and New York City’s LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International airports.

But Congress has a history of directing the FAA to add slots at Reagan, even though Washington’s other international airport, Dulles, has capacity to handle them. Reagan is closer to the capital and most federal departments and therefore more convenient, particularly for lawmakers.

Mike McCormick, coordinator of the Air Traffic Management program at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, said the congestion at Reagan National clearly contributed to the midair collision because the American Airlines jetliner, which was on a newly added route from Wichita, Kansas, was diverted to a different runway closer to the helicopter flights.

“In this instance, the sole reason for doing it was because they were too busy,” McCormick said. “This is something that controller has probably done thousands of times.”

The flight from Wichita to Washington began operating in early 2024, with the backing of Kansas lawmakers who said it was a “vital” to link the nation’s capital with the city, which has a long history as an aircraft manufacturing hub.

U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, a Kansas Democrat who serves on an aviation subcommittee, said the cause of the accident and the congestion at Reagan National are for now, “two different conversations.”

“I understand, the desire for us all to be able to connect these dots,” she said. “Right now that is not a connection that has been made by the NTSB.”

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Associated Press reporters Michael Casey in Boston; Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas; and Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia contributed to this report.