What Happened to H.R. 2864?

H.R. 2864...There was panic in the streets, a call to arms for everyone who owned a drone, letters to Congress, and a vote passed in the House, but what happened next? Did it work? Will the Senate finish what the House started? Should we have a yard sale?

Agfundernews has posted an article quoting Adam Welsh, head of global policy at DJI: "As there are two versions of the NDAA it will have to go to conference and conferees appointed from the House and from the Senate will have to sit down and hash out the differences in the text. And you don't know who the conferees are until they are announced. If it [the provision vs DJI] had been in the Senate version, there's a very good likelihood that it would have made it into the final bill.  Because it's not, they will have to debate the differences and try to figure out what the best options are. All we can do is keep engaging with people and reaffirm that there's no data security issue with our product, that we've been vetted repeatedly, and that if they effectively ban DJI it's going to not just hurt DJI but a number of different verticals including agriculture."

So what's next? Welsh goes on to say, "We definitely don't want to take our foot off the gas, so we're trying to meet with as many people we can on the Hill to go through what we do on data security, and we're also encouraging our customers to stay engaged and keep up the pressure."

The fight is ongoing, and we cannot become complacent just because the industry received a temporary delay while the House and Senate discuss how this bill will conclude. It could still change our industry, and we have not taken any action. The benefits for agriculture and first responders need to be continuously emphasized to as many politicians at the state and federal levels as possible. U.PASS will keep sending messages to our legislators, and our state representatives will continue to contact their state legislatures. However, we want every pilot out there to advocate for protecting our industry.

Keep raising your voice. Take a minute and send us your message.

Meanwhile, you can follow this link to read the two articles that came out this week and stay informed.