NTSB Chair warns last-minute provision “significantly reduces the safety of the airspace around Ronald Reagan National Airport”

NDAA provision rolls back post-crash safety measures, preserves loopholes Cantwell-Cruz legislation seeks to close

VIDEO

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, spoke on the Senate Floor tonight to warn that a last-minute provision added to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) would threaten aviation safety and must be removed to protect the flying public. Section 373 of the NDAA rolls back safety measures put in place after last January’s devastating mid-air collision which took the lives of 67 people, and preserves loopholes that allowed military aircraft to operate in DC airspace without ADS-B Out transmitting their location.  

“We don't even know who stuck it in,” Sen. Cantwell said about the provision. “People should be asking, who stuck in this language, who's standing by it, who's committed to it, who thinks it's a good idea? Because none of the safety advocates think that it's a good idea. I hope my colleagues will be as outraged as I am over this provision, outraged, along with the families, with the NTSB administrator and help us fight this issue.”

Earlier today, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chair Jennifer Homendy, whose agency is leading the investigation into the DCA crash, strongly criticized the provision, calling it “an unacceptable risk to the flying public” in a letter to Senate and House Armed Services Committee leaders. The Families of Flight 5342 and the Lilley family also issued strong statements against the provision, warning that the inclusion of Section 373 means that the NDAA, as written, would make American skies less safe.

Sen. Cantwell and Chairman Ted Cruz (R-Texas), along with aviation subcommittee leaders Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kans.) and Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) also released a joint statement which said:  “Almost a year after 67 lives were lost when a military helicopter hit American Airlines flight 5342 over the Potomac River, the NDAA fails to make the skies safer. As drafted, the NDAA protects the status quo, allowing military aircraft to keep flying in DC airspace under different rules and with outdated transmission requirements. This comes as Pentagon data shows a spike in military aircraft accidents since 2020. The families of the victims deserve accountability. The NDAA should be stripped of this new loophole and instead include the ROTOR Act -- a bipartisan bill that closes the dangerous exemption that allows military aircraft to operate in domestic skies without communicating their position. We must act decisively to prevent future tragedies.”

Sens. Cantwell and Cruz advanced the bipartisan ROTOR Act out of committee on October 21, 2025 which includes key elements of Sen. Cantwell’s Safe Operation of Shared Airspace (SOSA) Act introduced in June. The bipartisan bill closes ADS-B Out loopholes and ensures accountability for military flights by ending Department of Defense (DoD) "sensitive government mission" ADS-B Out transmission exemptions that have allowed military and other government aircraft to fly near DCA and other busy airports without transmitting their location. Training flights, proficiency flights and flights of Federal officials below Cabinet rank will no longer qualify for the exemption. 

TRANSCRIPT OF THE SENATOR’S REMARKS TONIGHT:

Sen. Cantwell: I would like to turn now before I get to health care, Mr. President, to come to the floor to speak about the National Defense Authorization Act. I see it was just delivered here [from] the House. I was hoping that our House colleagues would have stopped that legislation and actually made a fix to it. That is Section 373, of this year's Defense Authorization Act, which really undermines our critical commercial aviation safety and it exposes the gaps that we saw when we had the January 29 DCA air collision.

So I hope that my colleagues here will help us make changes to this section of the Defense Authorization Act. We know how important this is, the Flight 5342 passenger families, the Lilley family, along with myself and Senator Cruz, have been trying to sound the alarm bells around the Capitol…about why we shouldn't let the military fly without this important broadcast system, so that people know when they're in the region and can translate that communication, so that air traffic controllers and other aircraft in a busy airspace know when the military is there.

We know what happened when a Black Hawk involved in the January 29^th collision wasn't actively transmitting its location. We know what happened. We know that we have seen since then much from the NTSB. In fact, tonight, a letter from the National Transportation Safety Board is expressing their strong opposition to the inclusion of Section 373 in the National Defense Authorization Act. It basically is saying that it significantly reduces the safety of the airspace around Reagan -- Washington National Airport by allowing the secretary of [a] military department to operate….its missions [in] the DCA airspace in a manner that is basically how we got into the collision to begin with -- basically with it not transmitting.

So I don't know why we have to have a letter from the NTSB telling us what we're doing in the National Defense Authorization Act is making the airspace less safe. I don't even know how this got in the bill, because I guarantee you, Senator Cruz and I didn't approve of this being in the bill. I'm pretty sure my colleagues in the House, Congressmen Larsen and Graves, didn't approve of this being in the bill. So how is it that this is now in the bill that we all have to respond today, including the National Transportation Safety [Board], basically saying this language should not be there.

It is so important, that the families that have had to come together to support legislation that Senator Cruz and I do support, had to put out their own tweet. They basically said that it doesn't fix the failed system that produced the accident in January. So the families are having to lobby.

So who is not listening? Who's not listening to the ranking members of committees? Who's not listening to the NTSB? Who's not listening to the families of the victims? Who is jamming this into a bill just because they think that DoD still deserves to fly in a crowded airspace without people knowing that they are there?

So I hope my colleagues will take this issue seriously. I hope my colleagues will understand that this is not the way to fix legislation. I mentioned my colleague, Senator Cruz, and I have passed the ROTOR Act out of committee, important legislation that does fix the problem, that is endorsed by the families, that is endorsed by the NTSB, that is endorsed by other groups. And yet we couldn't get that into this legislation.

But yet, somehow, mysteriously, without anybody knowing how or why, this language is stuck into this bill. Listen to the Lilley family, who lost their son, First Officer Sam Lilley in the crash. They recognize this provision creates another loophole and stated: “Safety that depends on exemptions cannot be the foundation of [a secure] airspace system.”

So not only does this provision fail to rein in the training flights properly, it will keep making it more difficult for commercial aircraft to see military training flights flying so close to the flights around DCA.

Now I will say it's astounding to me that in this last big bill, other stuff was stuck in there, my colleague from the Commerce Committee might realize, that some of our colleagues wanted to be able to sue the federal government because the Department of Justice had looked at their phone records. Have we struck that provision?

I'm pretty sure these families who have lost loved ones would like to be able to sue the federal government, the DoD or the FAA, who basically make it hard to have safety provisions and have somebody in the dark of night put another exemption in for DoD, which is what caused the accident in the first place.

So we don't allow these families to have any recourse with the government, but we're still here with a provision that some Senators thought was important enough that they get off [and can] basically sue the government for millions of dollars. And yet this kind of behavior that ... makes it more dangerous for the flying public, and they get no recourse. We don't even know who stuck it in. People should be asking: Who stuck in this language? Who's standing by it? Who's committed to it? Who thinks it's a good idea? Because none of the safety advocates think that it's a good idea.

So Mr. President, I hope my colleagues will be as outraged as I am, over this provision, outraged, along with the families, with the ... NTSB administrator and help us fight this issue.

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