The U.S. House rejected the ROTOR Act on a 264-133 vote on Tuesday, one day after the Pentagon abruptly withdrew support for the aviation safety bill prompted by the midair collision near Washington, D.C. that killed 67 people last year.

The bill fell short of the two-thirds majority required under House suspension rules. More than 130 Republicans voted against it, reversing the bill's fortunes after the Senate had approved it unanimously in December.

The ROTOR Act would mandate wider use of ADS-B In and ADS-B Out, the surveillance technology that transmits an aircraft's position to other aircraft, and would limit exemptions for military helicopters operating in shared airspace.

Why did the Pentagon withdraw support?

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement on Monday that the bill could create "unresolved budgetary burdens and operational security risks." He did not specify what those burdens or risks are. The statement marked a reversal from the Pentagon's position last year, when it backed the legislation.

The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that ADS-B technology could have prevented the January 2025 collision between a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines passenger jet over the Potomac River. The system would have given the pilots more time to react and avoid the crash, the board found.

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy pressed the case publicly before the vote. "The ROTOR Act would've saved lives," Homendy said on social media. "How many more people need to die before we act?"

Who opposed the bill in the House?

Two powerful Republican committee chairmen led the opposition.

• Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, argued the mandate would compromise classified operations. "This bill will undermine our national security," Rogers said Monday evening. "Requiring our fighters and bombers and highly classified assets to regularly broadcast their location puts our men and women in uniform at risk."
• Rep. Sam Graves of Missouri, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, called the ROTOR Act an "unworkable government mandate" and warned it would be "burdensome" to some pilots.

Graves and Rogers back their own bipartisan alternative, the ALERT Act. That competing bill lacks endorsements from the NTSB, aviation industry trade unions, and the families of the crash victims — a split that sets up a institutional clash between House and Senate Republicans.

What happens next?

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, the ROTOR Act's co-author and chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, vowed to continue pushing the legislation. "Only the ROTOR Act ensures that all airplanes and helicopters flying in U.S. airspace play by the same set of rules," Cruz said after the vote. "Today's result was just a temporary delay. We will succeed, and ROTOR Act will become the law of the land. The families and the flying public deserve nothing less."

Families of the victims, many of whom traveled to Capitol Hill for the vote, said they would keep pressing for passage. "We are devastated. Today, a majority of the House voted to pass the ROTOR Act. It was not enough," the Families of Flight 5342 said in a statement. "We call on House leadership to bring the ROTOR Act back for a vote that lets the majority pass it."

The bill's path forward now depends on whether House leadership schedules another vote under rules requiring only a simple majority — and whether the Pentagon's objections can be resolved between the chambers.