Bipartisan Aviation Safety Bill Fails to Pass by Just One Vote

A single vote in the House just grounded a major post-crash aviation safety push, the New York Times reports. Lawmakers on Tuesday rejected the ROTOR Act, a bipartisan bill that had sailed through the Senate unanimously, by a 264-133 margin—one vote short of the two-thirds threshold needed under the fast-track procedure leaders chose. The measure would have required almost all aircraft to install advanced location-tracking technology by 2031 and tightened rules on when military planes can disable location broadcasts in busy airspace. All but one "no" vote came from Republicans, after the Pentagon abruptly dropped its support over security and cost concerns. Sources tell Politico House leaders had been privately suggesting to Republican members they should let the bill fail so any issues could be addressed.

The bill was crafted as Congress's main response to last year's midair collision over the Potomac River between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and a commercial jet, which killed 67 people and exposed gaps between Pentagon and FAA rules. Investigators say the tracking system at the center of the bill, known as ADS-B In, could have given pilots nearly a minute's warning instead of the split second they had. "How many more people need to die for us to decide that action needs to be taken?" National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy told reporters before the vote, arguing an emerging alternative House bill "doesn't implement the NTSB recommendations."

That rival proposal, the ALERT Act, would require aircraft to be able to receive ADS-B alerts but doesn't spell out what technology must be used or when it must be in place, and it carves out exemptions for some aircraft. Supporters of ALERT, including House Transportation Committee Chair Sam Graves, called the ROTOR requirements "emerging technology" that risk an "operations crisis," and House GOP leaders Mike Johnson and Steve Scalise both voted no, making it unlikely the ROTOR Act will be brought to a vote again under different rules. The Defense Department had previously endorsed the ROTOR Act after it passed the Senate, the Hill reports.