Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) are reigniting a bipartisan push for stronger aviation-safety requirements after a deadly midair collision last year.
The senators re-introduced the ROTOR Act during a press conference this week alongside the loved ones of the 67 people who died in an airliner and Army helicopter crash last year over Washington, D.C.’s main airport.
The bill would require aircrafts near civilian airports to share their live locations with one another and with air-traffic controllers.
“That accident over DCA did not have to happen,” Sen. Cruz said. “It could have been prevented, and we know how to prevent it.”
Sen. Cruz said the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has been recommending ways to prevent accidents like this for “decades,” including mandating that ADS-B In technology be used on aircraft. He said if this technology had been used on the aircraft that night, the crash would not have happened.
“I don't want to be standing here in a year with another 67 families, with another accident of people's lives who were taken because Congress couldn't get the job done,” Sen. Cruz said.
Sen. Cruz said the bill has broad bipartisan support and that Congress needs to act to make sure a tragedy like this never happens again. In December 2025, the bill passed the Senate unanimously.
“There are a host of areas in which Washington is broken, in which you have partisan bickering and fighting back and forth,” he said. “But this isn't one of them.”
In the House, the bill was just one vote short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass. Despite just one week remaining for lawmakers to pass legislation before leaving Capitol Hill until after the midterm elections, Sen. Cruz said he is confident Congress can get the job done.
“We can do this together, and this is going to happen because of the families,” Sen. Cruz said.
