The House on Tuesday passed sweeping aviation safety legislation by a vote of 396 to 10, sending the bipartisan ALERT Act to the Senate more than a year after a midair collision near Reagan Washington National Airport killed all 67 people aboard an American Airlines jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter.
The lopsided margin, well above the two-thirds threshold required under the fast-track rules used for the vote, masked a more complicated legislative backstory. The House had already tried once before, and failed, to move a safety bill in response to the January 2025 crash over the Potomac River. This time, lawmakers rewrote the package and cleared it with votes to spare.
But the bill now faces resistance in the upper chamber, where the senator who authored the earlier version says the House measure does not go far enough.
The legislation, introduced by House Transportation Chair Sam Graves of Missouri and House Armed Services Chair Mike Rogers of Alabama, would mandate several changes to the way aircraft operate in congested airspace. Pilots flying near busy airports would be required to employ new collision-prevention technology designed to track nearby aircraft more accurately. The bill also calls for an overhaul of helicopter routes near major airports and updated air traffic control procedures and training.
As The Hill reported, the legislation is a direct response to the January 2025 collision and the safety recommendations that followed. Graves told the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee during a March 26 markup that the bill was built around those findings.
"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."
The revised bill would require aircraft operating around busy airports to use Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast In, known as ADS-B In, along with next-generation collision-avoidance systems, AP News reported. Those changes directly address a longstanding NTSB recommendation. Military aircraft would also be required to keep ADS-B turned on during routine training flights, though sensitive missions would be exempt.
That military exemption has become one of the bill's friction points as it heads to the Senate.
Before the ALERT Act reached the floor, the House had already voted on a different bill aimed at the same problem. On February 24, the Rotorcraft Operations Transparency and Oversight Reform Act, the ROTOR Act, fell one vote short of the two-thirds majority needed for passage. That bill had been pushed through the Senate in December by Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz of Texas.
The near-miss sent lawmakers back to the drawing board. Graves and Rogers assembled a broader package that went beyond the ROTOR Act's focus on ADS-B requirements. The ALERT Act added collision-prevention technology mandates, air traffic control overhauls, and pilot training provisions, with a deadline for implementation by the end of 2031, the Washington Examiner reported.
In a Congress where every vote matters for Republican leadership, the 396-10 result was a rare show of near-unanimity. Only 10 House members voted no. Their identities were not disclosed in available reporting.
The comfortable House margin does not guarantee smooth sailing in the Senate. Cruz, whose ROTOR Act had already cleared the upper chamber, posted a pointed warning on X before the House vote.
Cruz wrote, as reported by Newsmax:
"A warning to my colleagues in the House: the Alert Act would not deliver the safety measures necessary to prevent another midair collision, as it lacks the critical improvements our aviation system needs."
Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington state, also indicated she believed the ALERT Act needed to be strengthened. Both senators have pushed for stricter timelines and tighter limits on the military exemptions that would allow certain flights to operate without broadcasting their locations.
Victims' families echoed that concern. The main families group issued a statement tying the legislation directly to the human cost of the crash:
"January 29, 2025, made clear what is at stake, the 67 lives lost that day should be honored with an improved system that prevents this from happening again."
Those families have become a persistent presence in the legislative debate, pressing Congress to close the gaps that allowed a military helicopter with its tracking equipment turned off to fly into the path of a commercial airliner on approach to one of the nation's busiest airports.
The January 2025 collision near Reagan National killed every person aboard both aircraft, 64 passengers and crew on the American Airlines regional jet and three soldiers in the Army Black Hawk. Investigators found that the helicopter's ADS-B transponder had been turned off, rendering it invisible to the collision-avoidance systems on the commercial plane.
The NTSB issued 50 safety recommendations in the aftermath. Graves said the ALERT Act responds to every one of them. Whether the Senate agrees that the House bill adequately translates those recommendations into enforceable law will determine whether the measure reaches the president's desk or stalls in a conference negotiation.
The political dynamics on Capitol Hill have grown more complicated as internal GOP leadership maneuvering competes for attention with must-pass legislation. The aviation bill's bipartisan vote count gives it momentum, but Cruz's public opposition signals that the Senate may demand significant changes before acting.
The bill now sits with the Senate. Cruz and Cantwell have leverage as the chairs and ranking members of the committees that would handle the legislation. If the Senate insists on amendments, particularly around military exemptions and implementation deadlines, the two chambers would need to reconcile their versions, potentially delaying final passage.
For the families of the 67 people who died over the Potomac, every month of legislative delay is another month the airspace around Reagan National operates under the same rules that failed on January 29, 2025. The House, at least, has now acted, on its second try.
Congress has shown it can fight bitterly over spending bills and drag out partisan standoffs for weeks. The question now is whether senators will treat 67 dead Americans with the same urgency the House finally mustered, or whether the ALERT Act becomes another bill that cleared one chamber and died waiting for the other.
Sixty-seven people are gone. The technology to prevent that crash already existed. The only thing missing was a law requiring its use, and Washington is still working on it.
