Jerry Moran Asks Secretary Sean Duffy About Pentagon Flying 'VIPs' In Helicopters Near DCA Despite Crash

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During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Thursday, Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) asked Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy about helicopter travel near DCA's restricted airspace.

Transcript

00:00Mr. Secretary, thank you for your presence here. More importantly, thank you for your presence in

00:04the air safety world that you are now operating in. After your confirmation, you became the

00:10secretary. The first time I ever met you is on January the 29th at Reagan National Airport.

00:17And I appreciate the manner in which you conducted yourself and the things that you have done

00:22every day thereafter to make the skies safer and to honor the Lily's son and every other

00:30tragic loss that occurred that night on that flight from Wichita, Kansas.

00:37I appreciate you. I want to talk a little bit about some of these things that are related to that

00:44event and that tragedy. First of all, the prior to the Army Aviation Brigade resuming helicopter

00:50operations at the National Capital Region in late April, did the Army or Department of Defense

00:56coordinate with you or the FAA? Did you then review and approve their re-entry into the field of

01:06operations? So what we did after, I think it was 36 hours after the... You said no. They came back.

01:17Did they consult with you? When they came back, when I was talking about... Are we talking about the

01:21offer of runway 33, the restricted airspace? Yes. They still can't fly through that airspace. We have

01:25no fixed-wing helo cross-traffic. And other airspace at Reagan? There's still no cross-traffic.

01:34But what you have seen is some helos at the Pentagon taking off, sometimes carrying VIPs and sometimes

01:41doing training missions, and that has been a concern. And nothing has changed in your order

01:46to prevent them, to allow them to return? Yes. Well, I hadn't prohibited them.

01:52They did it on their own. They do, yes. But the problem is they could change their mind.

01:58And I want to know whether there's consultation between the Army and the Transportation Department,

02:03you or the FAA. Yeah. So Secretary Hegseth paused any helo traffic out of the Pentagon,

02:09which I commend him for that. But we are going to continue that pause at the FAA at our discretion,

02:14and our teams are working together. I'm very concerned about the amount of traffic that's

02:19coming out of the Pentagon. And I do think if there's training missions, those training missions

02:23can be done at certain times the day when we have less traffic into DCA, number one. And if there's

02:30VIP travel, I would like to know who are the VIPs? Who is traveling on these helos? Who classifies?

02:35I don't think any of you here get helicopter travel anywhere. And I consider you all VIPs.

02:42Who's traveling? It's one of the questions I intend to ask in appropriation hearings as we have

02:47defense appropriation subcommittee hearings. I would like to know the answer to that question.

02:51If you'd share that with me too, I'd appreciate it. And I've introduced legislation that

02:58I think is of value. In 2000, FY19, I said that wrong. In FY19, NDAA allowed prevention of DOT to require

03:11installation of ADSB equipment on those Army helicopters.

03:17It didn't stipulate in or out, but it allowed legislation that was passed by Congress allowed

03:25the Army to operate without ADSB. I've introduced legislation that would eliminate that NDAA provision,

03:35which I guess would put more back in your court to make decisions. Is that something that you would

03:40support or do support? It is. And I think in regard to the, it's not simple to turn it on and off.

03:48It was a little more complicated than that on the aircraft. And if they're doing training missions

03:52or flying through busy airspace, ADSB out should be on. However, if there was an actual national

03:59security mission at play, true national security, how do they quickly turn it off? Because we don't

04:04we don't want enemies to see our aircraft, but yes, all of them should have ADSB out activated.

04:13Thank you, Mr. Secretary. I want to highlight so that you're not disappointed that I also care

04:20about essential air service along with my colleagues and let your stereotype of this committee,

04:26this subcommittee be firmly implanted. Hugely important to Kansas. We also have issues related to

04:33air traffic control. In this case, separate from kind of the normal air traffic control towers,

04:40we utilize contract air traffic control towers at some of our smaller airports. I'd love to hear

04:46from you that that's a program that you're aware of and supportive of. I'm aware and supportive of.

04:51Thank you. And then highlight, well, I want to highlight the importance of Chrissy Grants.

04:55Your department has significant opportunities to increase railroad and traffic highway safety.

05:04And finally, in regard to tariffs, 1979 agreement on trade civil aircraft has been a great benefit to

05:13this country. We have trade surpluses in the aviation and aerospace world. We certainly export

05:18more than we import. And we are hoping that you will be a voice in discussions within the administration,

05:25within the cabinet about the value of allowing this trade agreement since 1979 to work its course

05:32and let it continue to do the good things that we have been able to accomplish with an integrated

05:37supply chain that makes America number one and allows Wichita, Kansas to be the air capital of the world.

05:44I support the president's efforts to actually bring more manufacturing and more fair trade to this

05:50country, to our people. I've also brought up the 79 agreement. I think on that it's an $80 billion

05:55export benefit to the U.S. aviation. So the point is well made and I've communicated that to

06:03the powers that be in the administration. Mr. Secretary, thank you for using your position for good.

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