Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, said the House has not moved on the ROTOR Act amid concerns about the cost of adding tracking equipment, even as federal investigators finalized their review of the January 29, 2025, midair collision involving American Airlines Flight 5342 and a U.S. Army helicopter.
“It’s evident, it certainly would be inconsequential, whatever the expense of that equipment is would be inconsequential, if there is another crash and so we need to get this done, we need the House to act and we are going to continue to ask and plead and demand,” Moran told reporters in an interview Wednesday in Washington.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, pointed to the National Transportation Safety Board’s adopted recommendations as part of its investigation and called on the House to advance the bill.
“The NTSB’s findings and recommendations today make it clear – it is time for the House to pass the ROTOR Act,” Cruz said in a statement following Tuesday’s NTSB hearing.
Cruz said the NTSB has called for aircraft to broadcast and receive real-time location reports repeatedly over the past two decades.
“I am committed to ensuring that not one more life is lost for us to learn this lesson,” Cruz said.
The Rotorcraft Operations Transparency and Oversight Reform Act, S.2503, passed the Senate in December and was sent to the House, where Congress.gov lists it as “held at the desk” as of Dec. 18, 2025.
The bill would require aircraft that already must broadcast ADS-B Out in certain airspace to also be equipped with ADS-B In, with a compliance deadline of Dec. 31, 2031. It also narrows how “sensitive government mission” exceptions are applied for turning off ADS-B Out.
It has faced some challenges in the House, including from House Transportation Chair Sam Graves, R-Missouri. Graves expressed in a recent POLITICO interview that he wants to see the bill include revisions that would relieve general aviation flights from being required to equip with ADS-B In in scenarios when the act would otherwise require aircraft to do so.
Hope Chairman Graves stands firm on getting exemptions for GA in regards to ADS-B in. ADS-B in would not have prevented the DCA accident. GA had nothing to do with the DCA accident.