Airspace Location and Enhanced Risk Transparency Act of 2026

Floor Speech

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Mr. SUBRAMANYAM. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the ALERT Act as well. I am proud to be a cosponsor of this bill.

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 of DCA. Sixty-seven lives were lost, many of them parents and children from my community in Virginia.

After the crash, many of us said that we would do all we can do to prevent such a tragedy from ever happening again. The ALERT Act is part of the solution.

The bill addresses all 50 of the safety recommendations by the NTSB 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.

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 equipment requirements are granted only when absolutely necessary.

Finally, the ROTOR Act is a part of the solution, too. It passed the Senate resoundingly and has the support of families, and it even went through this body, where the majority supported it.

We must restore trust in our airspace and make sure nothing like this ever happens again.

Madam Speaker, I really want to thank the families and loved ones of Flight 5342. Without their advocacy and persistence, neither the ALERT Act nor the ROTOR Act would have made it this far. I look forward to continuing our work with them.

Madam Speaker, I thank the ranking member as well as the committee for all of their hard work on this bill. I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill.

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