At the AMCA Washington Conference in May, AMCA members were advocating for lessening the impact of two UAS bills targeting drones made by the Chinese company DJI.   Recently one of these bills, H.R. 2864, the Countering CCP Drones Act, (sponsored by Rep. Stefanik R-NY) was incorporated in the House of Representatives FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).  If enacted, then this would add DJI to the covered list in the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019, thereby effectively grounding these drones nationwide.  While it is still unclear when this would go into effect, AMCA is suggesting that agencies who use DJI drones make alternate plans should this ban occur.  It is important to note that the DJI ban is only in the House version of the NDAA at this point. It will have to pass the Senate next and be signed by the President before it becomes law.

UPDATE: The drone ban bill (AB 2684) is incorporated into the NDAA that just passed the House as Section 1722 of the House NDAA bill. We are recommending all AMCA members send letters to their senators referencing “our concerns with Section 1722 of the House NDAA (H.R. 8070)” and asking that Section 1722 be “amended to allow mosquito control agencies, reasonable accommodations to allow drones, produced by DJI or any other manufacturer approved by the FAA, to continue to be to be used to monitor and control mosquitoes to protect public health in non-critical infrastructure areas.”  As stated in our UAS position paper.

 

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