Congress
Tragedy hits Congress’ favorite airport
America’s worst air disaster in a generation happened at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, and its powerful frequent flyers are watching the aftermath intently.
Members of Congress have an intimate relationship with the airport, which is a 10-minute drive from Capitol Hill and is used by hundreds of lawmakers as a commuter hub. They’ve also taken an unusually active role in managing it, and lawmakers were quick to offer condolences, share observations, assert oversight authority and otherwise insert themselves after the deadly crash.
“It is the American airport,” said Rep. Norma Torres (D-Calif.), who said Reagan National isn’t just the most convenient airport for lawmakers. “It’s the place where citizens all over the country come to lobby their members of Congress, their US senators on issues of extreme importance to them.”
That observation has been used to justify decades of congressional interventions into the airport’s operations. An act of Congress governs how many flights can come in and out of it and how far they can fly. Then-Speaker Newt Gingrich and congressional Republicans renamed it for the 40th president over local objections in 1998. And it’s so frequently trafficked by lawmakers that Capitol Police are frequently on site to protect lawmakers who have sometimes been accosted there by vocal fellow flyers.
And it is now presaging an active effort by multiple congressional committees to probe aspects of the crash, which is being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board. Leaders of the House Transportation and Senate Commerce committees have announced plans to monitor the response, as have the chambers’ Armed Services panels, given the involvement of a military helicopter.
Already the disaster has placed a spotlight on the many connections between Reagan National and Capitol Hill.
A direct-to-Reagan National route is highly coveted by many lawmakers, who frequently lobby airlines to get one for their home states and districts — as Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) did for the inbound-from-Wichita jet that crashed into an Army helicopter while on approach to Reagan Wednesday.
In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, which is believed to have killed 67, members of the Washington-area congressional delegation were quick to revisit a fierce debate over the heavy aviation traffic at and around the airport. Local lawmakers who have fielded years of constituent noise complaints opposed an effort to add additional flight slots, arguing it would further strain the busy Washington airspace. A bipartisan group of lawmakers overruled those objections, adding five round-trip flights to benefit their constituents (and themselves).
“I’ve been praying that there wouldn’t have been something like last night, but kind of dreading in my heart that there would be,” said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who opposed adding the new flights. There is no direct evidence that the additional daily traffic played a role in Wednesday’s crash.
More broadly, the tragedy is prompting shock and reflection among lawmakers who might have themselves been victims had the mid-air collision happened at a different time, to a different plane.
It’s not the first time a Washington air tragedy has made an impact on Capitol Hill. After the January 1982 crash of an Air Florida jetliner, Reagan himself invited Congressional Budget Office worker Lenny Skutnik to his State of the Union address two weeks later — paying tribute to Skutnik for diving into the icy Potomac to save a stricken passenger.
Today, cars can be seen idling along the Capitol’s East Front on “fly-out” days, waiting to whisk members across the Potomac River to the Reagan National terminal. Major airlines employ staff solely devoted to handling lawmakers’ reservations into and out of the airport.
“The last time I flew out of DCA it occurred to me there was a lot of traffic in and around the area, and it felt like something like this could happen,” said Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.). “It’s devastating to see a crash like this and absorb what was supposed to be a safe flight for everyone end in such devastation.”
“I fly on American Airlines all the time, on that same approach, twice a week and so it could happen to anybody,” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.). “It brings to light how one little mistake can create such a tragedy, and you hate it for all the people involved, but you know, hopefully we can get to the bottom of it and find out what happened.”
To that end, various House committees received briefings from the FAA and NTSB on the incident Thursday. One House Transportation Committee member, granted anonymity to describe private discussions on the panel, said a hearing on the crash is likely to be scheduled soon.
As with all things on Capitol Hill, larger political considerations have lingered over members’ public response to the tragedy. The early suggestion from a small handful of conservatives that diversity, equity and inclusion programs could be at fault was turbocharged when President Donald Trump cited that as a possible cause at a Thursday afternoon news conference. In turn, some Democrats, including Torres, pointed to Trump’s decision to attack federal workers as a precipitating factor.
But many others cautioned against a rush to judgment. Once a cause is firmly identified, Congress could play a role in enacting legislation to prevent another similar crash — as it did after the 2009 crash of Colgan Air flight near Buffalo, New York, toughening the regulations for regional airlines and pilot fatigue standards.
Former Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), an ex-chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said it would be hard for Congress to avoid revisiting just how much traffic is packed into the airspace surrounding Reagan National — and Congress’ efforts to pack more flights in.
“I’m not going to say that was a cause of this, but it is an incredibly hectic corridor between the military traffic and the commercial traffic and, of course, other helicopters,” he said. “I would hope that members of Congress would back off on pressuring the airport for more and more direct flights to serve them and heed both the concerns of the airport and potentially of the FAA and air traffic control.”
Several sitting members agreed, including Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), a Transportation Committee member. Burchett said in an interview that he wants to review air traffic control transcripts and reexamine Congress’ decision to allow more Reagan National flights.
“I’ve flown in there over a hundred times, I’m always amazed at the amount of traffic,” Burchett said.
But that doesn’t mean he or fellow lawmakers are ready to give up on their convenient air hub. Tuberville said he didn’t see much of an alternative to his weekly winged commute to and from Auburn, Alabama: “Beats driving.”
Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley rescheduled a planned vote on Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general late Friday in a preemptive move as negotiations between the Trump administration and GOP holdouts continue.
The vote, now set for Tuesday after a scheduled Thursday vote was postponed, isn’t an indication that a deal allowing for Blanche’s confirmation is near, so much as it is a nod to Judiciary Committee rules that require three days of notice for a panel meeting.
There is no sign that President Donald Trump is about to acquiesce to the unflinching demands of Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who wants a controversial settlement agreement between Trump and the IRS substantially pared back.
Cornyn, who lost his primary to a Trump-endorsed candidate, wants the Justice Department to nullify a $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” and limit the scope of a tax audit immunity component of the pact.
Trump told reporters earlier Friday the fund is “dead” but added “I wish it weren’t.”
“I’d like to see them compensated,” he added, referring to people he considers victims of government abuse, including participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
To advance Tuesday, Blanche needs to pick up Cornyn and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), another senator on the panel with similar concerns. He can’t lose any GOP votes if he wants to be reported favorably out of the Judiciary Committee.
“Chairman Grassley wants Todd Blanche’s nomination to be successful,” said a Judiciary Committee spokesperson, who declined to be named. “Noticing the markup gives more time for the White House to secure the votes for the President’s nominee. Grassley would like to see Blanche confirmed before the August recess as he has an excellent record restoring law and order and keeping Americans safe.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is zeroing in on one of House Republicans’ biggest contests — a purple district in Nebraska — when he starts his recess campaign sprint.
Scalise will travel to Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District in the Omaha area for an event with Republican Brinker Harding in the coming days, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter granted anonymity to share plans not yet made public. Republicans are digging in to defend the seat, which Kamala Harris won in the 2024 presidential race and is among Democrats’ best pick up opportunities this fall as they seek to flip the House.
Harding is running against Democratic consultant Denise Powell to replace retiring GOP Rep. Don Bacon. Bacon, a moderate-leaning Republican, flipped the Omaha district red in 2016.
After Nebraska, Scalise is planning to travel across the country throughout August, including to defend GOP incumbents Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ and Zach Nunn’s key battleground seats in Iowa’s 1st and 3rd Congressional Districts and Derrick Van Orden in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District.
He’ll boost candidates working to flip blue districts like Laurie Buckhout in North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, Derek Merrin in Ohio’s 9th Congressional District and Mike LiPetri in New York’s 3rd Congressional District.
Scalise also plans to travel to Michigan, Colorado, South Carolina and Texas for campaign events over the August recess.
President Donald Trump goaded John Cornyn on social media Friday morning, accusing the Texas senator of withholding his vote on Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination in retaliation for Trump’s central role in his political demise.
Cornyn, who lost his May primary to Texas’ scandal-ridden attorney general, the Trump-endorsed Ken Paxton, has threatened to block Blanche’s nomination in the Senate Judiciary Committee until the White House promises to permanently shelve its $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” in writing — something Trump appears unwilling to do.
“John Cornyn never had a problem with the so called “Fund,” which will not benefit me, but rather the great American Patriots who were hunted down like dogs and whose lives were unfairly and illegally destroyed by the Crooked Joe Biden Administration, until after I decided to Endorse and Support his Republican Primary opponent in Texas, who easily won the Nomination for the United States Senate,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Several Republicans bristled at the fund, which could have been deployed to compensate Americans who faced charges after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and which gives the president and his family audit immunity over taxes. At his July confirmation hearing, Blanche said that the fund, part of a settlement the president reached with the IRS, was defunct. But the administration has been “reluctant to change” the text of the settlement, Cornyn told reporters Thursday.
Trump signaled his continued support for the Jan 6 rioters on Friday.
“I will always feel that these victims of government abuse should be paid back for what they were forced to endure, their lives have been ruined!” he wrote. “Millions of people agree with me, as was proven in my landslide Presidential win, where this was a major subject of debate, and so did John Cornyn, until he lost his Election to an opponent that I Endorsed.”
On Thursday, the president suggested that he could punt a Senate vote on Blanche until after Cornyn — and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) — leaves the chamber at the end of the year. Cornyn, however, suggested on social media that there are other Republican senators with concerns about the fund.
“After the midterms, who knows who’s going to be the next United States senator from North Carolina or Texas?” Cornyn told reporters.
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