ROTOR bill fails, House turns to ALERT

The ROTOR Act was introduced in July of last year by Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation Chairman Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Ranking Member Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) to address safety issues after the January 2025 midair collision between a military helicopter and a regional jet in Washington, D.C., that claimed 67 lives. The Senate passed it unanimously in December.

If passed, the ROTOR Act would have required ADS-B In for aircraft operating in Class A, B, and C airspace—where ADS-B Out is already required—in addition to narrowing exemptions that allow government aircraft to turn off ADS-B Out for “sensitive missions,” and preventing military training and proficiency flights in Class B and C airspace unless tied to a “national security event.”

On February 19—two days after the NTSB issued its final report on the accident—House T&I Chairman Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) and Ranking Member Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), along with House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) and Ranking Member Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) introduced the Airspace Location and Enhanced Risk Transparency (ALERT) Act.

Graves spoke on the House floor to explain his support for aircraft safety technology while also outlining his concerns with the ROTOR Act: "Let me be extremely clear. As a pilot myself, I unequivocally support the adoption of safety enhancement technologies, and I want to get this right. Ultimately, any successful directive or mandate from Congress will be calculated, scalable, and futureproof, not a blanket mandate that limits the aviation community to one technology."

The ALERT Act would establish an aviation rulemaking committee—including stakeholders from airlines, charter operators, GA organizations, and others—to issue recommendations for equipping aircraft with collision avoidance technologies. The House committee leaders say the bill “addresses all 50 safety related recommendations” in the NTSB report, including:

• Establishing requirements for equipping collision mitigation, avoidance, and alerting technologies and systems for civil fixed-wing and rotorcraft.
• Improving helicopter route design, guidance, and separation.
• Preventing loss of separation (near-miss) incidents.
• Addressing deficiencies in the FAA’s safety culture.
• Enhancing air traffic control training and procedures, particularly during high traffic.
• Strengthening the safety of Washington, D.C., airspace—one of the nation’s busiest and most congested airspaces.
• Repealing section 373(a) of the last National Defense Authorization Act—a provision that would let military helicopters fly without ADS-B Out during training missions.

After the House vote on the ROTOR Act, AOPA Senior Vice President of Government Affairs and Advocacy Jim Coon said, “Moving forward, the House now turns to the ALERT Act that, like the ROTOR Act, also addresses the NTSB recommendations surrounding the DCA accident. AOPA will continue to work with Congress to address the implementation of aircraft collision avoidance technologies.

“At the same time, we believe Congress must also address the misuse of ADS-B data by passing the Pilot and Aircraft Privacy Act to prohibit the use of ADS-B collision avoidance technology to collect fees from pilots. As NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said earlier this month, allowing this critical safety technology to be used for revenue generation ‘should be prohibited,’ as it discourages pilots from using ADS-B,” Coon added.

Meanwhile, Graves and Larsen said the T&I Committee will “expeditiously consider the [ALERT Act] in our committee.”