US senators have been asked again to consider banning the use of drones made by Chinese manufacturer DJI in American airspace after a previous attempt to outlaw the machines was dropped.
A ban was put forward by House Representative Elise Stefanik (R-NY) as part of her proposed Countering CCP Drone Act. This draft legislation was eventually rolled into this year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), also known as HR 8070. Some lawmakers in the United States have been considering banning DJI following warnings from the FBI and CISA that the Chinese-made drones could collect data about America and its inhabitants while out and about and send that info back to Beijing.
After the grounding of DJI was approved by the House in June, the NDAA made its way to the Senate, landing in the lap of the Armed Services Committee to read over and adjust. The committee’s final version of the NDAA or S 4638 makes no mention of the ban on DJI drones, though. And that version was passed last month 22 to 3, and will be voted on by the whole Senate in the near future, without the drone ban.
But DJI and fans of its drones in the US shouldn’t celebrate just yet. Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) has already proposed an amendment that would add the ban in its entirety to the bill.
It’s not clear how likely it is for the amendment to be approved after being mulled over by Scott’s peers, although it does appear to have some bipartisan support. Republicans currently have a majority in the House, and when it voted on its version of the NDAA, House Democrats pretty much universally voted no. By contrast, in the Senate the Democrats are technically in control with 50 members on their side to the Republicans’ 49, plus the tie breaking vote of Vice President Harris.
Strictly speaking, there are 46 Democrats in the Senate plus four independents affiliated to varying degrees with the Dems.
Two of those independent Senators, Joe Manchin (I-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), are no longer registered Democrats and don’t always see eye-to-eye with others in their former party. That gives Scott’s amendment some wiggle room to pass.
And even if the amendment goes down in defeat, it still means the Senate and the House will have different versions of the same NDAA bill – one with the DJI ban from the House, and one without from the Senate. When this happens, the two chambers of Congress need to negotiate on the details so they can make a final version, and that’s another chance for the ban to get back in.
There’s also the possibility President Biden may veto an NDAA that bans DJI’s drones, but considering he was more than happy to approve the TikTok ban, it seems highly unlikely he’d be willing to veto the bill for DJI’s sake, particularly in an election year.
DJI has faced various sanctions from the US government over the years though its equipment can still be bought and used by private individuals in the United States. ®
