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U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas, who chairs the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Aviation, Space, and Innovation, warned on the Senate floor that the current draft of the FY2026 National Defense Authorization Act does not meet basic safety standards for military helicopter operations in shared airspace. He urged lawmakers to revise the bill or pursue additional legislation to preserve existing protections.

Moran’s concerns follow comments from National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy, who said this week that the NDAA draft could roll back safety measures established after the January 29 crash near Washington, D.C., involving American Airlines Flight 5342, which departed from Wichita.

“I will insist and be working with my colleagues to amend the FY2026 National Defense Authorization Act, or to otherwise pass legislation to make sure that NDAA language is at least as a minimum abiding by the safety standards that were set in place after the crash of January, the 29th,” said Sen. Moran. “Our aviation system is fragile. I chair the subcommittee in Commerce on Aviation and Space. We’ve seen this in testimony time and time again: there is fragility in the safety of our air system, and over the last year, Congress has passed significant legislation to invest in the future safety of our airspace and introduced legislation to make our airspace safer, including the ROTOR Act. Now is not the time to take a step back from these efforts.”

Sen. Moran joined his fellow members of the Senate Commerce Committee leadership in issuing a joint statement raising concerns about the NDAA provision. The full statement can be found at commerce.senate.gov