Drone users in the USA will, by now, be familiar with the machinations of the House of Representatives and its efforts to curtail DJI. Until now the best known enemy of drones was Republican Elise Stefanik, but it has always been a cross-party issue, and this time Democrat Frank Pallone, of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has been getting most of the attention.
"With this action, Congress will ensure that future versions of DJI drones cannot be imported, marketed, or sold in the United States," Pallone said to the floor, but is anything actually different this time?
Firstly, if you've been paying attention, you might ask, why is the "Countering CCP Drones Act" back (H.R. 2864) if it already passed the House? After all, we were talking about it in February and how it would work (essentially banning all future DJI products). With DJI making most of the best camera drones, as well as some of the best action cameras and best wireless microphones, that's not nothing for content creators.
The law did pass the house back in June, but, as we said at the time, it wasn't in the way the protectionists originally hoped. It was sent to the Senate tacked onto a massive military spending bill – the 2025 National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA). Whether it stays in or out has come and gone.
The NDAA has passed the Reps (not surprisingly), but NOT the Senate. The Senate have re-drafted it and – at the moment – the draft still doesn't include the DJI ban.
So, Stefanik, Pallone and friends – those keen to ban DJI drones have presumably seen the writing on the table for their ban and decided to try again with their ban.
Atop all this, of course, is an election cycle. You might have heard about it? That will likely mean that a lot of business is simply abandoned. So why start the Countering CCP Drones Act again if it's all going to get stopped by the government process in a couple of months?
The answer there is, of course, the search for political advantage.
To get both sides, I spoke to DJI earlier this year who were clear "The Countering CCP Drones Act is a horrible name... We are not affiliated with the CCP, the Communist Party, or anything else, but that's sort of the hyperbolic name of the act was put forward by Representative Elise Stefanik"
That interview also explains DJI's understanding of how the rules proposed would affect customers – but, for now, there is no 'real' news, only the political concern that comes with Republicans and Democrats aligning against freedom of choice in the drone market.
