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.

Review - S 1443 Introduced – Border Counter UAS Activities

Earlier this month, Sen Lankford (R,OK) introduced S 1443, the Protecting the Border from Unmanned Aircraft Systems Act. 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. There is no spending authorized in the legislation.

Moving Forward

As I reported Monday, this bill is included in the agenda of today’s business meeting of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. This typically means that there is bipartisan support on the Committee for the bill, but there may be amendments made to the bill to appease concerns among certain members.

Commentary

Missing from this bill is any discussion of the legal constraints under which any C-UAS actions can be taken. While those legal restrictions only apply to UAS operating in US airspace, additional political and international legal constraints would apply to any over-the-boarder actions. There should have been an additional subsection added to the bill requiring GAO to prepare a report to Congress on the existing legal constraints on cross-border and wholly internal counter UAS operations.

 

For more details about the provisions of this bill, including a brief look at the potential political complexities facing effective C-UAS regulations, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-1443-introduced - subscription required.

Bills Introduced – 5-4-23

Yesterday, with just the Senate in Washington, there were 42 bills introduced. Three of those bills may receive additional coverage in this blog:

S 1443 A bill to 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. Lankford, James [Sen.-R-OK]

S 1458 A bill to require the Administrator of the Small Business Administration to establish a program to assist small business concerns with purchasing cybersecurity products and services, and for other purposes. Cortez Masto, Catherine [Sen.-D-NV]

S 1463 A bill to establish a defense industrial base advanced capabilities pilot program. Rosen, Jacky [Sen.-D-NV] 

I will be covering S 1443.

I will be watching S 1458 for definitions and language that would include control system security products in the scope of the coverage of the bill.

I will be watching S 1463 for definitions and language that would include cybersecurity within the scope of the capabilities covered by the proposed pilot program.