WASHINGTON — Bipartisan leaders on the House and Senate Homeland Security Committees have introduced comprehensive legislation to reauthorize and significantly expand federal counter-drone authorities before existing statutory provisions expire.
WASHINGTON — With commercial drone sales surging and unauthorized flights near commercial airports, major sporting venues, and critical chemical plants reaching record levels, congressional lawmakers are moving to modernize federal counter-unmanned aircraft systems (C-UAS) statutory authorities.
Under current law—enacted in the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 under 6 U.S.C. § 124n—only four federal cabinet entities possess statutory exemptions from federal wiretap and aircraft piracy statutes to detect, track, and physically or electronically mitigate hostile drones: the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Energy.
The Authority Gap Facing State and Local Law Enforcement
The existing legal framework leaves state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) law enforcement agencies in a dangerous legal bind. When a rogue drone flies over an NFL stadium packed with 80,000 spectators or buzzes an oil refinery, local police departments currently possess no legal authority to jam the drone’s radio frequency control signal, spoof its GPS receiver, or physically shoot it down.
Doing so would violate federal criminal statutes under Title 18, which classify all unmanned aircraft—even hobbyist quadcopters—as civil aircraft protected under the same federal laws that shield commercial Boeing 737s.
Key Provisions in the Proposed Reauthorization Bill
The bipartisan reauthorization measure, championed by Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Ranking Member Rand Paul (R-Ky.), proposes a balanced framework:
- Five-Year Authority Extension: Reauthorizing DHS and DOJ counter-drone operational authorities through 2028.
- SLTT Pilot Program: Granting select, highly trained state and local law enforcement agencies temporary mitigation authority during designated National Special Security Events (NSSEs), such as the Super Bowl and presidential inaugurations.
- Expanding Airport Protection: Authorizing TSA to install and operate passive and active counter-drone systems at primary commercial airports nationwide in close coordination with the FAA.
“The threat posed by unmanned aircraft systems is growing exponentially,” Sen. Peters stated during committee floor markup. “Our laws must keep pace with technological reality. We cannot wait for a catastrophic drone collision at an airport or a mass-casualty attack at a crowded stadium before giving our security personnel the legal tools they need to protect American communities.”