House passes ALERT Act
The U.S. House approved the ALERT Act, a safety bill drafted after last year’s midair collision that would increase ADS‑B use for military aircraft near civilian traffic and create a task force to review mixed helicopter and fixed‑wing operations around busy airports. (apnews.com) Senate leaders say the House bill may not go far enough, setting up further debate over how to reshape airspace surveillance and mixed‑use procedures. (nytimes.com) A related Senate committee also advanced a pilot mental‑health bill aimed at reducing stigma and prompting FAA medical‑certification reforms. (upi.com)
The House voted Tuesday to pass the ALERT Act, sending an aviation safety bill to the Senate after last year’s deadly midair collision near Reagan National Airport. (transportation.house.gov) The bill is H.R. 7613, the Airspace Location and Enhanced Risk Transparency Act of 2026, introduced on February 20 and approved by House committees in late March before clearing the full chamber on April 14. (congress.gov, transportation.house.gov, transportation.house.gov) Its core idea is simple: make aircraft easier to track and separate. The legislation would require more collision-mitigation equipment, tighten helicopter route safety around airports, update air traffic control procedures, and address Defense Department operations in the national airspace system. (congress.gov) The push came after the 2025 collision between American Airlines Flight 5342 and an Army UH-60 Black Hawk near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, a crash House lawmakers cite as the trigger for the bill. (transportation.house.gov, transportation.house.gov) One fight now is over Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, the system that works like a digital beacon by broadcasting an aircraft’s position. The Senate’s ROTOR Act, which passed in December 2025, would require Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast In more broadly, while Senate Commerce leaders said the revised House bill still leaves gaps that could fail to prevent future collisions. (congress.gov, congress.gov, commerce.senate.gov) The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee says its bill responds to all 50 National Transportation Safety Board recommendations tied to the crash and covers the board’s probable-cause findings. Supporters including the National Transportation Safety Board and several aviation groups backed the committee version after revisions in March. (transportation.house.gov, transportation.house.gov) The Senate is moving on a parallel track. On April 14, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee unanimously advanced the Mental Health in Aviation Act, a separate bill that would push the Federal Aviation Administration to revise medical-certification rules for pilots and others who disclose mental health conditions. (upi.com, congress.gov) That measure would also authorize a Federal Aviation Administration campaign to reduce stigma around seeking care and increase awareness of support services for pilots and air traffic controllers. The House already passed its version of that bill in 2025. (congress.gov, congress.gov, congress.gov) The next step is a Senate negotiation over how much of the House package survives and whether senators fold in the broader tracking rules from the ROTOR Act. The debate is no longer over whether Congress will rewrite aviation safety rules after the Reagan crash, but how far it will go. (congress.gov, commerce.senate.gov, transportation.house.gov)
