The leaders of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation are urging federal lawmakers to end a loophole in aviation safety that caused the Washington, DC, midair collision in January 2025.
In a press conference on Monday, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) urged fellow senators to reject legislation that would codify a policy that led to the tragic collision of an Army Black Hawk helicopter and a regional airline jet, leading to the death of 67 people.
The loophole in question concerns military helicopter safety protocol: the majority of military aircraft do not broadcast their locations for surrounding planes to see, which was a key factor that caused the collision in January. The current protocol allows military aircraft to frequently come within a few hundred feet of commercial planes, according to Cantwell.
After the accident at Reagan National Airport (DCA) in January 2025, the FAA and military leaders met immediately and decided that military aircraft would begin broadcasting their positioning with ADS-B Out transmissions, which allow other aircraft and air traffic controllers to know their precise location, altitude, and speed.
Now, that practice is up for debate again. Language to allow military aircraft to fly without transmitting their location via ADS-B Out has been included in Section 373 in the National Defense Authorization Act, the annual bill that funds the military.
Section 373 would allow military training flights to operate without transmitting their locations through ADS-B Out capable of being picked up by a commercial aircraft Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS).
“There’s no reason to have this language in the National Defense Authorization Act unless you’re somebody who wants to continue to see letting the military do whatever they want to do in a congested airspace,” Cantwell said at the press conference.
Military aircraft not transmitting their locations is an ongoing safety issue that has caused several high-profile near-misses between military aircraft and passenger planes throughout 2025. The most recent incident just occurred on December 12 when a JetBlue flight climbing to its cruising altitude over the Caribbean nearly missed a military plane shortly after takeoff. The military plane was not transmitting its location at the time.
“In the Senate, I have not found a single senator who defends this provision,” Cruz said of Section 373 at the press conference. “When you look at it on the merits in light of what has happened, it is indefensible.”
Cruz and Cantwell, who are the chairman and ranking member of the Commerce Committee, respectively, are both urging lawmakers to send the legislation back to the House of Representatives and have filed an amendment to replace the language in Section 373 with their bipartisan ROTOR Act.
The ROTOR Act would end “Department of Defense (DoD) ‘sensitive government mission’ ADS-B Out transmission exemptions that have allowed military and other government aircraft to fly near DCA and other busy airports without transmitting their location,” according to Cantwell’s office. “Training flights, proficiency flights and flights of Federal officials below Cabinet rank will no longer qualify for the exemption.”
On Monday afternoon, the Senate moved to advance the defense spending bill one step closer to final passage. It appears on track to pass, with some lawmakers loath to send the legislation with rewrites back to the House.
“It’d be really hard to undo the [NDAA] now,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told reporters, according to The Hill. Instead, the Senate might look at an amendment vote to attach the ROTOR Act to the defense funding package when it proceeds to the floor in the coming days.
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