Thune eyes spending package to tackle military helicopter safety issue

Senate Majority Leader John Thune suggested Monday that he wants to tackle a contentious provision on military helicopters in a separate spending package — and not by axing it from the annual defense policy bill that’s set to pass this week.

That’s a blow to Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the committee’s ranking member, who have been calling on their colleagues to help strip the language out of the National Defense Authorization Act.

The nation’s top transportation accident investigator has complained that the NDAA language would allow certain military helicopters to fly without using an advanced location-broadcasting technology in the Washington area, a safety concern raised following the deadly January crash between a regional jet and an Army Black Hawk near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

Cruz and Cantwell have filed a pair of amendments to both nix the NDAA provision and attach their ROTOR Act, S. 2503, to the bill instead.

Referencing the ROTOR Act, Thune said Monday he thinks the dispute over the NDAA language could be handled by holding a vote on attaching the Cruz-Cantwell legislation to a fiscal 2026 appropriations package.

“I think we’ll get there on that. But, yeah, it’d be really hard to undo the defense authorization bill,” he said.

During a separate news conference Monday, Cruz appeared to acknowledge that adding his bill to the NDAA could be a tall order, with only a few days left before Congress leaves for the holidays. Instead, he hinted that he was eyeing other landing spots.

“I’m seeking a vote on the ROTOR Act as part of any appropriations measure before the current continuing resolution expires at the end of next month,” he said alongside Cantwell. Some relatives of victims from the disaster joined them.

Cruz was referencing the stopgap funding bill that lapses at the end of January, which is not an annual appropriations package.

What’s next: It's unclear whether there will be votes on the two lawmakers’ NDAA amendments, but Thune’s comments suggest that’s unlikely.

In response to a question from POLITICO about whether Thune has said if he will allow those amendments to get floor votes, Cruz replied, “We don’t have a firm commitment on that yet, but I’m hopeful that we will.”

Cruz made the pitch that if senators cut the provision out of the NDAA, which is poised to pass this week, the House would be able to “easily” OK the measure again, given how lawmakers in that chamber recently passed it 312-112.

When asked if he is focusing on the amendment to nix the NDAA language before then attempting to pass the ROTOR Act in early 2026, Cruz said the bottom line is he wants to “fix this problem, and so procedurally, there are multiple, multiple possibilities.”

He said he’s discussing the subject with Thune, as well as Cantwell.

Context: Cruz and Cantwell have slammed the provision in question, as has Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, who says it would allow the military to resume flying certain helicopters in the Washington area without using the advanced location-broadcasting technology called Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast Out, or ADS-B Out.

The House and Senate Armed Services committees have defended the language.

Cruz told reporters he spoke about the topic with President Donald Trump’s team last week, and that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has committed to him that he won’t oppose the ROTOR Act.