Airspace Location and Enhanced Risk Transparency Act of 2026

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRETT. Madam Speaker, I thank the chairman and the ranking member, as well.

I rise today in support of the ALERT Act, the bill before us today. This bill will strengthen aviation safety and includes key provisions from several of my bills focused on the ADS-B signaling system, technology that could have prevented the deadly collision between the commercial airline flight and a military helicopter over the Potomac River last January, which claimed the lives of 67 individuals.

This tragedy was a breakdown across multiple different systems. For example, the commercial aircraft was transmitting ADS-B Out, signaling their position to other aircraft, but it lacked ADS-B In, the ability to see what was going on around them. The helicopter, the Army Black Hawk, had ADS-B In but was not transmitting ADS-B Out to alert others of their position. The American Airlines flight had TCAS, the collision avoidance system that sends an alert to pilots in the cockpit, but the helicopter did not.

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Mr. BARRETT. Madam Speaker, I am grateful to Chairman Graves and Chairman Rogers, as well as the entire Armed Services Committee and Transportation and Infrastructure Committee for addressing these gaps, including provisions from my Safety in Shared Skies Act, Military ADS-B Out Loophole Act, and Next-Gen Collision Avoidance Assistance Act.

We are making real progress with these provisions today to improve safety and accountability across the airspace. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and we give our prayers to the families.

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