Rotorcraft Operations Transparency and Oversight Reform Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. OBERNOLTE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in reluctant opposition to the ROTOR Act.

This bill is a well-intentioned response to the horrific airline accident last year at DCA. In the months since the accident, it has become clear that the accident would have been prevented had the helicopter that was involved in the collision been broadcasting its position and its speed through the ADS-B Out system.

This bill would indeed fix that. However, this bill imposes a costly mandate that every aircraft within the system implement a technology called ADS-B In.

Mr. Speaker, most of the aircraft that would be affected by this bill, those with a takeoff weight of over 12,500 pounds, already have superior technology for collision avoidance called TCAS II.

Mr. Speaker, this is technology that works at all airports. At most of the general aviation airports in my district, ADS-B Out will not work near the ground, Mr. Speaker, because you have to be receiving air traffic control signals for it to work. TCAS II works at all of those airports.

Moreover, since the ROTOR Act was introduced months ago before the NTSB report was released, it does not implement many of the recommendations in that report.

Chairman Graves has a far superior bill called the ALERT Act that addresses all 50 of those recommendations.

Mr. Speaker, I urge us to reject the ROTOR Act today and to quickly pass the ALERT Act, conference those changes with the Senate, and get it on the President's desk for signature.

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