Texas Congressman Pledges Anti-Drone Legislation

News Discussion
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Chair of the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee Rep. Mark Green (R – Texas) said in an interview on Friday that one of his “number one priorities for next Congress” is passing his legislation enabling local law enforcement and states to “take down” drones. He was not specific on the measures the Counter-UAS Authority Security, Safety, and Reauthorization Act includes for taking them down.

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/drone-control-bill-faces-pushback
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Representative Mark Green, Chair of the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee and a Republican from Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District, is a retired Army officer with over 20 years of service and combat experience. His background makes him a valuable voice on matters related to drone security metrics.

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Mark, you’re hitting the nail on the head with this one. On the one hand, Rep. Mark Green is raising the red flag about drones, especially those tied to China, saying we need to let law enforcement “take them down” to protect national security. He’s treating it like a five-alarm fire.

On the other hand, Sen. Rand Paul is pumping the brakes. He’s worried that giving more power to the government to track and stop drones could open the door to spying on regular folks. It’s clear he’s more focused on keeping privacy intact than sounding the alarm over drones.

Here’s the big question, though: How do we find the sweet spot? We don’t need to wait for something to go wrong, like a midair or something worse, before figuring this out. The truth is, drones are operating in a bit of a gray area right now, neither totally out of control nor fully regulated, and that’s leaving room for problems down the road.

This tug-of-war in the GOP shows a bigger issue: balancing safety and freedom. Green’s urgency and Paul’s caution both have a point, but until lawmakers find common ground, drones are going to keep flying under the radar. sometimes literally. and that could come back to bite us. Somebody do something!

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Raf, gotta tell my own boring drone story to give some perspective from the trenches in Europe.

A couple of years ago I was approached and questioned by local farmers about using drones in checking fields for “nesting animals” (mostly deer) prior to mowing. Tractors frequently go out and shred tiny sweet Bambi’s to pieces. Can’t see em in tall grass and rotting shredded Bambi will make Edda the cow sick. No, its not about Bambi, its really just risky for animals who have issues with digesting other dead animals.

Farmers in Germany don’t differentiate. Once they find out that you know anything about Luftfaaht (!) you become the resident expert on anything that flies. Yes! Even birds!

After quickly referring the farmer to someone with knowledge on topic, I sat down and completed the LBA (German FAA) Drone course. Ding! Certified! Another certificate collected.

Then I went shopping for drones.

DJI is the matador in the industry - delivering drones from my tiny farmers village to Hollywood. But - the drones collect, store and submit TONS of data to DJI and likely the somewhat funky government of China.

Drones are limited in maximum altitude (this can be hacked) and subject to limitation based on geo-location (fencing - this can be hacked) and allegedly cannot be operated near airports and milltary installations (this can be hacked). Still, DJI (and whoever runs that country) will know exactly when Jason flew where, how high, how far and they will probably know what I saw on my screen, too.

I skipped the purchase. Now I have another “license” for something I do not operate, know a bit more than I did before and still dislike these little things.

Upon realizing that, if and when someone at DJI decides Jason is a bad guy, they can prevent my €1200€ toy from functioning - much like Glorious Elon can switch a Tesla off, or your X account or… maybe you?

Talking about prohibiting or limiting the use and abuse of this technology (China & TEMU own this market) is nothing but idiotic political grandstanding. There is no middle ground to be found and the search for common sense will remain equal or better to what our current political primate-circus provides.

My take: Continue to mess with aviation safety or impact our national security or infrastructure - we’ll shockpunch an additional oxygen vent into your skull to help with the obvious cerebral hypoxia issues. Point blank, no further questions.

Allowing Joe Schmuck to own a machine that can fly high in the sky and cause a fully loaded airplane to fall into a city is a bad idea.

And here would be my idea on how to stop it: Tarrifs! Drive the cost of these things so high that a millionaire will flinch in pain before pushing that damn TEMU Buy Now button. Seems to have worked with General Aviation, why not with Drones?

Alternatively create FDAC (Federal Drone Abuse Center) with GS16 Nerds injecting “special firmware” updates (lead free, please!) directly into the user of the device.

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JaBa, good to hear from you, missed your sharp wit. You summed it up well: drones have a lot of potential but come with serious risks. Your focus on safety over convenience makes good sense.

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I have a Parrot which, if it is believed, can have all the “data to help us improve” option switched off.
But Parrot was killed in the public drone market by DJI (which copied software, quelle surprise) and now sells, with improved cameras to cops.
French law is much like German law, any drone over 1kg in weight needs a pro licence, which is more or less the same as a microlight licence.
Lots of people spend lots of money getting pro licences and then – find there is not work.
Farmers, who were the prime customers, prefer cheaper but slower satellite analyse of crops, moss removers compete with cheaper ladders and back pack sprayers, and the big payers – the film companies, only hire people who had years of camera work and video editing work, before they moved into drones.
Still fly my little one from time to time – it is fun, and the occasional pic is good for work.
Army should be the main customers, and will be after they have finished combing the horses.

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I question Rand Paul’s motives for pumping the brakes, but whatever his actual motives are, we do need to be careful with “anti-drone” laws. As this recent “drone siting” craze proved, most people aren’t able to discern what is a “drone” and what is just an aircraft or planet or satellite in the sky, and we definitely don’t want people to legally start shooting at what could be an airliner with paying passengers because they thought it was a drone.

We also don’t want a patchwork of individual state, county, and city laws over drone usage, since airspace and airspace rules are already the purview of the FAA, and that is where regulation and “anti-drone” laws should come from.

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The really scary thing about UAVs is the fervor with which politicians with no technical expertise in aviation (beyond knowing which frequent flier program gives the most perks to congress-critters) are so willing to dive head-first into regulating an issue they know practically nothing about. (Funny how the “small government” party instantly turns into nanny-state guardians, months before taking their seats.)

I’ve been advocating for years, that the controller of every UAV that can achieve flight above 500’ agl should be required to have a cherry-bomb built into its controller, set to go off if the device impacts anything above that altitude. As a chopper pilot, I spend a lot of time there, and there’s no way for me to see those air-mines, so it’s only fair.

A lot of money and engineering is being thrown at “autonomous vehicles” on land, and we will start to have some real-world data on their safety before too long. I just don’t want to be one of those datapoints when some giga-naire decides to become the Clyde Cessna of UAVs.

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How does being an infantry officer with a business management degree or a flight surgeon give him any more insight into this than any of us?

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The headlong rush to adopt drones, with no thought for consequences, has been alarming for over a decade. While some of the recent sightings may have been misidentification, it’s a safe bet that the “metallic object” that a Gulfstream struck (accompanying article on AvWeb) was not a crewed aircraft, helicopter, or stars or planets. How many of the objects people see are kids’ playthings, how many are in the hands of criminals, and how many might be tools of foreign actors looking to harm us is unresolved. But there should be a way for local, state or federal law enforcement to quickly disable these things, bring them down, and identify them. Rand Paul, like his father, is basically a nihilist, bordering on anarchist. I share his distrust of government, but sometimes we need it.

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Oooo. Such an important point to get started on. :roll_eyes: It’s not like there’s nothing more pressing in this country that matters to everyone.

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IMO, Mark Green’s background as a West Point graduate, combat infantry officer, medical doctor, and businessman reflects a high level of dedication and talent across multiple fields. These experiences demonstrate his ability to tackle complex challenges and make informed decisions under pressure. While his expertise may not lie specifically in drone technology or airspace management, his diverse skill set and leadership experience can bring valuable perspectives to policy-making. That said, and I grant you, addressing drone-related issues requires collaboration with technical experts and stakeholders to ensure his proposals are both effective and balanced. His qualifications are notable, but the success of his legislation ultimately depends on how well it incorporates specialized knowledge and protects both national security and civil liberties.

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If they know Chinese nationalist (as opposed to Nationalist China) are using drones near military facilities, arrest them and jail them then send them home.

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