The House on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan aviation safety bill, setting up a showdown with the Senate, where leaders have declared that key provisions fall short of what is necessary to prevent aircraft from midair collisions.
The ALERT Act, which the House backed by a vote of 396 to 10, is the second major aviation safety bill lawmakers have voted on since an Army Black Hawk helicopter flew into a commercial jet over Ronald Reagan National Airport in January 2025, killing 67. The accident triggered a national reckoning over how flights through congested airspace are regulated, and whether the rules applying to the military are adequate.
In a speech on the House floor Tuesday, Representative Mike Rogers, Republican of Alabama and the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, praised the bill as “a product that improves aviation safety without undermining our national security.”
But that assessment was challenged by Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas and the chairman of the committee that oversees aviation. He said in a social media post that “the ALERT Act would not deliver the safety measures necessary to prevent another midair collision.”
“Congress should not advance a bill that neither improves aviation safety nor closes the loopholes that have allowed operators, including the military, to fly blind in congested airspace,” he added.
Tuesday’s vote in the House came just a few weeks after a separate aviation safety bill Mr. Cruz coauthored fell one vote shy of passing the chamber, after unanimously passing the Senate. It had the backing of the families of the crash victims and the leader of the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigated the accident.
The dispute over the bills centers on two issues: advanced location-tracking technology, and who is required to use it in congested airspace.
The Senate-passed measure would require all aircraft to be equipped with advanced tracking technology known as ADS-B In by the end of 2031. It would also limit the military’s ability to turn off technology that broadcasts an aircraft’s location to other pilots, known as ADS-B Out, when flying through congested airspace.
Jennifer Homendy, the N.T.S.B. chair, has said that the collision could have been prevented if such measures had been in place. The ALERT Act outlines similar minimum standards for location-tracking technology, but does not mandate which collision prevention system aircraft must install. At the same time, it favors some technology that is not yet commercially available for helicopters, and waives such requirements for private pilots operating certain specialty planes.
The House-passed bill also gives military leaders more leeway than the Senate-passed bill to decide when to switch off location-tracking technology. The Senate-passed bill only allows the practice during the most sensitive missions.
The authors of the House bill say that their approach is robust because it addresses a wider range of safety recommendations from the N.T.S.B., including mandating new rules for air traffic control staffing and airport traffic.
But even some supporters think it could go further.
“This bill is an incredible step forward,” Representative Don Beyer, Democrat of Virginia, said on the House floor, adding: “We can and should make this bill stronger.”
Karoun Demirjian is a breaking news reporter for The Times.
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