Bipartisan House bill to extend expiring counter-drone measures

A bipartisan group of legislators has introduced a new bill in the US House of Representatives to extend existing counter-drone capacities of federal agencies set to expire in September, and partially broaden those to authorities on the state, local, and tribal level.

Tabled by a quartet of lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, the “Safeguarding the Homeland from the Threats Posed by Unmanned Aircraft Systems Act of 2023” aims to prolong counter-drone measures first adopted in wake of the September 11 attacks of 2001. Those have since been reinforced by successive laws, most recently by “Preventing Emerging Threats Act of 2018,” which is now scheduled to expire September 30. 

That date was fixed in a stop-gap extension agreement struck late last year after Congress failed to agree on long-term legislation.

Read: FBI cites bomb-toting UAV inquiries in urging counter-drone action

The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI),…