WASHINGTON― The U.S. House this week adopted an amendment to the annual defense policy bill incorporating a measure put forward by Michigan Rep. Tom Barrett, directing the Pentagon to study the feasibility of installing collision-avoidance systems on all U.S. military helicopters.
Barrett, a Charlotte Republican and former Army helicopter pilot, had introduced the legislation in March after the crash of an American Airlines flight and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan National Airport killed 67 people in Washington, D.C.
The text of the legislation also calls for a feasibility study on installing an advanced surveillance technology known as Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) on military helicopters.
Barrett's thinking is that, had the Black Hawk in the Jan. 29 crash been equipped with the same crash avoidance system as the airliner and the two aircraft had been able to communicate that way, their fate over the Potomac River that might have been avoided.
The crash-collision systems are not currently built into most military helicopters because they're not necessary for the combat profile that they're designed for, Barrett noted. His measure directs the Defense Department to consider the cost of installing the systems and any implications they'd have for combat, training and domestic security operations..
"Increasingly, more of our training flights are done in congested, crowded civilian air space, so that interoperability is really important. I think it could have, and would have, contributed to preventing the accident here in Washington, D.C., and to me we ought to be forward thinking about it and really put this into place," Barrett told The Detroit News on Wednesday.
"This is the first step in that. It will require follow-on steps from here and hopefully getting it through to hopefully upgrading our fleet to have the collision-avoidance system installed."
The legislation, which Barrett introduced with Republican U.S. Rep. Jen Kiggins of Virginia, asks the Department of Defense to complete the feasibility study within 90 days. Kiggins is a former helicopter pilot for the U.S. Navy.
Their measure was incorporated into the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act that the the chamber is expected to vote on later Wednesday afternoon.
If the package passes later today, it would be Barrett's fourth bill passed by the House since the freshman lawmaker was sworn into office in January. The NDAA package will later have to be negotiated between the two chambers after the Senate passes its own version.
Another amendment that Barrett had proposed, based on the Patriots Over Politics Act, wasn't ruled in order. That amendment, with over 30 co-sponsors, would permit service members who served at least six years to transfer their unused GI Bill education benefits to their children if their time in the military ended because of their refusal to get the COVID vaccine.
The measure would help an estimated 6,000 service members who were in the process or window of transferring their unused GI education benefits when they were either voluntarily or involuntarily separated from the military over their refusal to comply with the COVID vaccine mandate, Barrett said.
Barrett himself falls into this category, saying he had initiated the transfer of his unused benefits to his kids and was three-quarters through the process when he left the Army after 22 years over the vaccine mandate ― a top reason that he decided to run for office after being threatened with a dishonorable discharge, he said.
He suspects part of the reason the amendment wasn't included in the NDAA was the roughly $150 million cost estimate by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The freshman congressman called that cost estimate "unrealistically high" for 6,000 people with varying degrees of remaining benefits.
Barrett said he still aims to get the legislation through the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
In a voice vote, the U.S. House adopted four amendments by Rep. John Moolenaar, the Caledonia Republican who chairs the House Select Committee on China, including one that directs the secretary of defense to submit an annual report analyzing arms sales facilitated by entities in China, including their "technical capabilities, proliferation risks and impact on U.S. interests."
Another Moolenaar measure instructs the Pentagon to develop and maintain a classified list of high-risk DOD critical infrastructure dependent on materials or components from foreign countries of concern and also to carry out a risk assessment.
Rep. Bill Huizenga, R- Holland, got two amendments passed by voice vote, including one stating that each member state of the North American Treaty Organization security alliance should commit to providing each year a minimum 3.5% of GDP to core defense spending and an additional 1.5% of GDP to defense-related infrastructure spending "to ensure NATO military readiness."
Huizenga's other measure calls on the Pentagon to compile a report and mapping of China's efforts to build or buy strategic foreign ports.
Rep. Jack Bergman, R- Watersmeet, secured three amendments in the NDAA and worked on another submitted by Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina to make it a felony to trespass on military installations or property with a penalty of up to two years imprisonment or a fine.
Bergman's office said the measure was in response to incidents involving the Chinese Communist Party, including last year's case involving five University of Michigan graduates from China found at Camp Grayling in northern Michigan during a U.S. National Guard training exercise with members of the Taiwanese military.
The five were found with cameras near military vehicles, tents and classified communications equipment during Northern Strike, one of the largest U.S. National Guard training exercises in the United States. Federal prosecutors later charged the five with several crimes, including conspiracy, lying to federal investigators and destroying records during a federal investigation.
A recorded vote was requested for Wilson's amendment.
Several other amendments put forward by Michigan lawmakers were excluded from consideration or not ruled in order by the House, including one by Rep. John James, R- Shelby Township, requiring the Pentagon to submit a report on any security deficiencies that exist the Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie.
Another amendment that James sponsored would have prohibited transgender women from competing in women's sports at the U.S. military service academies. James, who is running for governor, is a graduate of West Point.
The House Rules Committee cleared nearly 300 amendments for debate Tuesday, but none were individual amendments put forward by Democratic lawmakers.
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