Iowa bill aims to prohibit drones near livestock farms (again)

Buzz it, and they will come – the cops, that is. State lawmakers in Iowa have introduced legislation that calls for creating fines and potential prison sentences for pilots who fly their drones within 400 feet of farms raising livestock.

Two different but remarkably similar looking bills have been tabled by elected officials in Iowa seeking to ban unauthorized drones being flown over or within 400 feet of livestock “farmsteads.” House File 388, which was pushed ahead by Iowa’s House Agriculture subcommittee this week, “prohibits the use of remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) flying over a homestead or that part of a farmstead where agricultural animals are kept (secured farmstead area).”

A nearly identical text was approved by a Senate subcommittee last week. Both bills require approval by their respective full committees before being put to vote by the Iowa legislature.

At first glance, the proposed House ban might seem like an effort by…