WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Monday to bar new drones from Chinese drone manufacturer DJI from operating in the United States, one of a series of measures aimed at China that lawmakers are considering this week.
The bill, which still needs to be approved by the U.S. Senate before it could become law, would add DJI to the Federal Communications Commission’s Covered List, which would prohibit the company’s products from operating on U.S. communications infrastructure. It would not prevent existing DJI drones from operating in the United States.
DJI, which sells more than half of all drones in the United States, opposes the bill that it said “restricts the ability of U.S. drone operators to buy and use the right equipment for their work, solely on the basis of the equipment’s country of origin, undermines American interests and will hurt the very industry Congress is trying to support.”
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chris Reese)
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