By STEPHEN GROVES and JOSH FUNK, Related Press
WASHINGTON D.C. (AP) — Republican Sen. Ted Cruz threatened Monday to carry up funding to maintain the federal authorities open after the tip of January if reforms don’t go by then to tighten up the principles on navy flights and assist stop lethal crashes just like the collision between an airliner and an Military helicopter over Washington, D.C., that killed 67.
Cruz and Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell held a information convention Monday with a number of the victims’ households to induce Congress to strip provisions from a huge protection invoice that might enable navy plane to get a waiver to return to working with out broadcasting their exact location, simply as they have been earlier than the Jan. 29 crash.
It’s not clear if Republican management will enable the protection invoice to be amended as a result of that might ship the invoice again to the Home and will delay raises for troopers and different key provisions. But when the protection invoice passes as written now, Cruz stated, he’ll maintain up authorities funding till the invoice he launched final summer season is handed to repair the issue.
Cruz stated the protection invoice provision “was airdropped in at on the final second,” noting it might unwind actions taken by President Donald Trump and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to make the airspace round D.C. safer.
“The particular carve-out was precisely what prompted the January twenty ninth crash that claimed 67 lives,” Cruz stated.
Earlier than the crash, navy helicopters routinely flew via the crowded airspace across the nation’s capital with out utilizing a key system known as ADS-B to broadcast their areas. The Federal Aviation Administration started requiring all plane to do this in March.
Nationwide Transportation Security Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy, senators, airways and key transportation unions all sharply criticized the brand new helicopter security provisions within the protection invoice final week once they got here to gentle.
Cruz and Cantwell stated they solely grew to become conscious that the sprawling navy invoice would have that language after it was finalized by congressional leaders final week. They started strenuously objecting as quickly as they realized it contained the exemptions.
The households of the crash victims stated this invoice would weaken safeguards and ship aviation security backwards.
“Our households know the implications of systemic failures, and we can not settle for a coverage change that makes our skies much less secure,” the households stated in an announcement.
The NTSB gained’t launch its closing report on the reason for the crash till someday subsequent 12 months, however investigators have already raised quite a few key considerations concerning the 85 close to misses round Ronald Reagan Nationwide Airport within the years earlier than the crash and the helicopter route that allowed Black Hawks to fly dangerously near planes touchdown on the airport’s secondary runway.
The invoice Cruz and Cantwell proposed to require all plane to broadcast their areas has broad help from the White Home, the FAA, NTSB and the victims’ households.
