House approves ALERT Act following deadly midair collision over DC

WASHINGTON - The House of Representatives on Tuesday approved the ALERT Act, legislation aimed at strengthening aviation safety in the wake of the deadly midair collision near Reagan National Airport in January 2025.

The Airspace Location and Enhanced Risk Transparency Act was introduced in February 2026 after the National Transportation Safety Board completed its full investigation into the crash.

Lawmakers said the bill is designed to address the broad scope of safety issues identified in the investigation.

The measure incorporates improvements that respond to all 50 of the NTSB’s final recommendations.

READ MORE: ALERT Act moves forward as DCA crash families demand stronger measures

What they're saying:

Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO)

"The tragic crash that occurred over the Potomac River and most other aviation incidents are rarely the result of a single issue or failure. They are the result of multiple contributing and complex factors, which is why it was essential that we understood all the facts before legislating," said T&I Chairman Graves. "The ALERT Act is the bipartisan and comprehensive response to the full scope of this accident. This aviation safety reform bill addresses the probable cause, the contributing factors, and all 50 of the NTSB's safety recommendations. I want to thank Chairman Rogers, Ranking Members Larsen and Smith, the NTSB, and everyone throughout the aviation community for their collaboration on this important legislation. I look forward to working with the Senate to complete a final bill that we can send to the President, improve the safety of our aviation system, and ensure that such an accident does not happen again."

Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Ranking Member Rick Larsen (D-WA)

"My deepest condolences remain with the families of the 67 lives lost in the DCA mid-air tragedy," said T&I Ranking Member Larsen. "The bipartisan ALERT Act is the result of productive, good-faith collaboration and incorporates feedback from the NTSB and the aviation community to make it a truly comprehensive safety bill. Today's passage of the ALERT Act is the next step in delivering on Congress' safety commitment to the flying public and acting on the NTSB’s 50 safety recommendations. I look forward to working with my Senate counterparts to get a final bill to the President’s desk."

U.S. Representative Suhas Subramanyam (VA-10)

"A big reason why we are here is that on January 29, 2025, a U.S. Army Black Hawk Helicopter and American Airlines Flight 5342 collided in midair outside DCA. 67 lives were lost, many of them parents and children in my community in Northern Virginia. After the crash, many of us said we would do all we can to prevent such a tragedy from happening again. The ALERT Act is part of the solution.

The bill addresses all 50 of the safety recommendations by the NTSB’s following their investigation into this crash. We need to address them all because it wasn’t just one issue that led to this tragedy. It was a combination of systemic problems that made our national airspace unsafe.

But I want to stress that there is more work to do. First, we must ensure there are no delays in implementing collision-prevention technology for every type of aircraft. We must also ensure that exemptions from new safety requirements are granted only when absolutely necessary. Finally, the ROTOR Act is a big part of the solution. It passed the Senate resoundingly and has the support of the families. We must restore trust in our airspaces and make sure nothing like this happens again.

I really want to thank the families and loved ones of Flight 5342. Without their advocacy and their persistence, neither the ALERT Act, nor the ROTOR Act, would have made it this far.

I look forward to continuing to work with the families and my colleagues to get this legislation across the finish line."

Dig deeper:

The ALERT Act (Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure)

• Takes important steps to improve safety throughout the nation’s airspace for every user of the airspace and the flying public;
• Ensures the utilization of technology to enhance flight crew alerting and controller situational awareness;
• Requires ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast) In and a corresponding collision prevention technology to be equipped and operating on virtually all aircraft that are required to have ADS-B Out, by December 31, 2031;
• Establishes a public dashboard to ensure transparency and accountability throughout the rulemaking processes;
• Makes updates to helicopter route safety and separation requirements;
• Requires necessary updates to air traffic control training, processes, and procedures to promote safety;
• Seeks to objectively define a close proximity encounter and requires the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to establish a database to effectively monitor such encounters and other data for trends;
• Investigates shortcomings in both safety culture and data sharing that contributed to the collision;
• Tackles mismanagement within the FAA that contributed to the fatal collision;
• Strengthens safety standards for military aircraft and cooperation between the military and the FAA;
• Enhances requirements and guidance for collision avoidance technology for military aircraft;
• Strengthens oversight of flight operations in congested airspace; and
• Requires greater flight data sharing between the Secretary of Defense and the FAA.