S 1443 Reported in Senate – Border cUAS Strategy

Earlier this month, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee published their report on S 1443 [removed from paywall], the Protecting the Border from Unmanned Aircraft Systems Act. The bill was considered in a Committee Business Meeting (pgs 11-12) on May 17^th, 2023 and recommended favorably without amendment by a vote of 9 to 1. Sen Paul (R,TN) was the dissenting vote.

The bill would require an interagency strategy for creating a unified posture on counter-unmanned aircraft systems (C–UAS) capabilities and protections at international borders of the United States. It would also require a report to Congress on the resources needed to place that strategy into effect.

Moving Forward

While this bill received strong bipartisan support in Committee, it is not a politically important enough bill to justify the time the Senate would need to consume to consider it under regular order. The most likely way that it could be considered would be under the unanimous consent process, but Paul’s opposition in Committee makes that unlikely, as he would likely object and it only takes one objection to stop the unanimous consent process. Similarly, Paul’s position as Ranking Member of the Committee makes it unlikely that the bill would be allowed to be considered as an amendment to some must pass legislation.