Review – HR 6846 Introduced – UAS Threat Assessment

Back in December, Rep Crane (R,AZ) introduced HR 6846, the Detecting and Evaluating Foreign Exploitation of Novel Drones (DEFEND) Act. The bill would amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 by adding a new section; §324, Annual assessment on terrorism threats to the United States relating to the use of unmanned aircraft systems by covered foreign adversaries, including terrorist organizations. No new funding is authorized by this bill.

I can find no legislation in the 118th Congress that would be similar to HR 6846. To date no congressional action has been taken on this bill.

Moving Forward

Crane and all five of his cosponsors are members of the House Homeland Security Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there should be sufficient influence to see this bill considered in Committee. I see nothing in this bill that would engender any organized opposition. I would expect that the bill would receive bipartisan support, and that support should be sufficient to see the bill considered in the full House under the suspension of the rules process.

Commentary

While the bill’s description of the information to be included in the assessment would seem to be comprehensive, it has two serious shortcomings. First, it does not include any consideration of the legal aspects of counter UAS operations that currently restrict State, local, and tribal organizations from effectively identifying, tracking and intercepting covered UAS systems. Second, it effectively ignores any potential efforts (and legal restriction on such efforts) by private sector critical infrastructure organizations to protect themselves.

 

For more information on the provisions of this bill, including suggested language to correct the shortcomings identified above, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-6846-introduced-uas-threat-assessment - subscription required