Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. JACKSON of Texas. Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chair, my amendment will help to safeguard the privacy of America's farmers and ranchers that work day and night to produce the food the world relies on.

This amendment would give our agricultural producers and food processors the opportunity to impose unmanned aircraft restrictions around their operations upon a formal request to prevent drones unauthorized access to their land.

In 2016, Congress created a process by which critical infrastructure facilities can impose restrictions on drone flights around their operations.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency designates the food and agriculture sector as a critical infrastructure sector, which is so vital to the United States that its success is imperative to our national security and our economic security.

In the event of an emergency situation or disaster, protection of our agricultural land across the country is going to be vital.

Intelligence officials have even gone so far to warn that America's agriculture industry has been targeted by suspicious drone activity, potentially by domestic terrorists or other bad actors.

Food security is national security, plain and simple.

This amendment would ensure that we give our farmers, ranchers, and food producers the same ability to restrict the use of drones around these facilities that we give to amusement parks, outdoor facilities, and a variety of other interests that do not have similar national security implications.

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Mr. JACKSON of Texas. Mr. Chair, I will point out that this amendment is structured and written in such a way that this does not apply to all agricultural and food production facilities. It only applies to the very few largest operations in the United States, the ones that, in fact, supply 80 percent of the food production in this country.

There is a national security risk here. We talk at length in this Chamber all the time about how agriculture is becoming a national security issue.

Mr. Chair, I encourage all of the Members in the House to vote for this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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