Two House committees voted unanimously on Thursday to approve a new version of aviation safety legislation intended to respond to the January 2025 fatal midair collision between a commercial airliner and a military helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. 

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee voted 62-0 in favor of an amended bill from Chairman Sam Graves, R-Mo. At the same time, the House Armed Services approved, 53-0, provisions addressing Pentagon operations. The new text coming out of both committees will be merged during the House Rules Committee markup on the legislation before it goes to the floor, the committee’s ranking member Rick Larsen, D-Wash., said during that panel’s markup.

The bill, known as the ALERT Act, is the House’s response to the National Transportation Safety Board’s final report on the crash, in which an American Airlines regional passenger jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided near Reagan airport, killing all 67 people on both aircraft. The NTSB report, made public Jan. 29, included 50 recommendations to improve air safety.  

The Transportation committee approved the measure after adopting a substitute amendment by voice vote, which made substantial changes to the original text, as well as a manager’s amendment to the substitute, also sponsored by Graves, to make additional technical changes. 

“The bipartisan ALERT Act is a comprehensive package that addresses the probable cause, contributing factors and responds to all 50 safety recommendations that were issued by the NTSB,” Graves said during his opening remarks. “At a higher level, the ALERT Act takes important steps to improve safety throughout the nation’s airspace by ensuring the utilization of technology to enhance flight crews’ traffic awareness with visual and audio alerting, making updates to separation requirements and helicopter route design.”  

Graves introduced the bill last month with Larsen as a co-sponsor along with the chair and ranking member of the Armed Services Committee — Mike D. Rogers, R-Ala., and Adam Smith, D-Wash. The original bill received significant pushback from the NTSB, which said the text did not substantively address all the board’s recommendations. 

In the weeks since, Graves said, the panel has “worked diligently with the NTSB to refine and improve the legislation before us today.” 

On Wednesday, the NTSB released a statement on the updated text, saying the new requirements, “when completed, would address our recommendations.”

Key changes include 26 provisions to require the Federal Aviation Administration and Transportation Department to act on recommendations from the NTSB, including requirements for specific location transmission technology, known as ADS-B In for Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, and collision prevention technologies on “virtually all aircraft,” Larsen said.

The addition of stronger ADS-B In requirements in the House measure follows a vote in late February in which the House rejected a bipartisan Senate aviation safety measure. That bill, sponsored by Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, would have mandated use of that technology. 

Cruz’s bill, known as the ROTOR Act, missed House passage by one vote after passing the Senate by unanimous consent in December. That bill had the backing of the NTSB and Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy. 

But the day before the House was scheduled to vote on the Senate bill, the Defense Department, as well as leaders of both House committees with jurisdiction, raised concerns about operational security for military aircraft under the Cruz bill. 

Those concerns were addressed in the Armed Services Committee markup Thursday. 

That panel adopted a substitute amendment to the House bill by voice vote that includes 13 of the NTSB’s recommendations specific to DOD.

Those recommendations included agreement by the Defense Department to use collision prevention technologies on aircraft in the national airspace, requiring the DOD to coordinate with the Transportation Department to carry out risk assessments for special missions in congested airspace and requiring military training on flying in highly congested airspace. 

Rogers called the bill critically needed legislation to improve aviation safety in the nation’s capital that could not wait. 

The Armed Services Committee adopted eight amendments to the substitute en bloc, via voice vote. Those amendments included provisions to require additional reporting to Congress, studies on the feasibility of using virtual flight training for military operators and a Government Accountability Office review of the efficacy of the manned rotary wing aviation safety management systems. 

Ranking member Smith praised the legislation but highlighted what he called a “deeply troubling” pattern of the Defense Department and the Federal Aviation Administration not coordinating with one another. 

“They have to work together. I understand the urgency of the military missions, but when they are operating in civilian airspace here in the United States, they also have to prioritize working with the FAA to de-conflict,” Smith said. “That coordination has got to get better.”