Chairman Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), who lead the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, have filed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Their amendment seeks to remove section 373 from the NDAA, a provision that would roll back certain safety measures implemented after a mid-air collision last January. The senators argue that section 373 codifies loopholes allowing military aircraft to operate in Washington, DC airspace without ADS-B Out technology transmitting their location.
The senators also introduced an amendment to replace section 373 with their bipartisan ROTOR Act. In a joint statement, Sens. Cruz and Cantwell said:
“Our colleagues on the Armed Services Committees are just plain wrong that their last-minute language will make things safer. It does the exact opposite, as the NTSB made clear yesterday. The NDAA weakens current law by letting military aircraft use less effective technology than ADSB-Out when the military is already required by law to have ADSB on its aircraft. It also puts into federal statute authority for the military to waive transmission of ADSB-Out, which the military already has the authority to do—and it abused—leading to a key factor in the January 29th DCA crash. We owe it to the families to put into law actual safety improvements, not give the Department of Defense bigger loopholes to exploit. We have filed an amendment to do just that.”
On December 10, Senators Cruz and Cantwell joined aviation subcommittee leaders Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kans.) and Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) in releasing another statement:
“Almost a year after 67 lives were lost when a military helicopter hit American Airlines flight 5342 over the Potomac River, the NDAA fails to make the skies safer. As drafted, the NDAA protects the status quo, allowing military aircraft to keep flying in DC airspace under different rules and with outdated transmission requirements. This comes as Pentagon data shows a spike in military aircraft accidents since 2020. The families of the victims deserve accountability. The NDAA should be stripped of this new loophole and instead include the ROTOR Act -- a bipartisan bill that closes the dangerous exemption that allows military aircraft to operate in domestic skies without communicating their position. We must act decisively to prevent future tragedies.”
The ROTOR Act was advanced out of committee by Sens. Cruz and Cantwell on October 21. The legislation aims to close existing ADS-B Out loopholes and increase accountability for military flights by ending Department of Defense "sensitive government mission" exemptions from transmitting location data near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) and other busy airports.
