HR 6618: Wildfire Aerial Response Safety Act

HR 6618 in plain English: This bill directs the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to study how unauthorized drone flights interfere with wildfire-fighting operations on public lands. The FAA must examine incidents over the past five years, assess counter-drone technologies, and evaluate public education efforts, then report its findings and recommendations to Congress.

Stated purpose

This bill directs the FAA to study how drone incursions into restricted airspace affect wildfire suppression efforts on federal lands, and to report findings and recommendations to Congress.

Key points

• Requires the FAA to study drone incursions into restricted airspace during wildfire suppression operations on federal lands.
• Study must count and assess interference incidents over the last five years.
• Evaluates feasibility of deploying counter-drone systems to detect and prevent unauthorized drone flights near wildfires.
• Assesses effectiveness of educational materials warning the public about drone interference with firefighting.
• FAA must submit a report to Congress with findings and recommendations.

Arguments supporters make

• Drones flying into restricted wildfire airspace have forced costly delays in aerial firefighting, and a formal study will give Congress the data it needs to fix the problem.
• Understanding how often and how badly drone incursions disrupt suppression operations is a necessary first step before spending money on solutions like counter-drone systems.
• The bill is modest in scope — it only requires a study and report, not new regulations — so it gathers facts without overreaching into rulemaking.

Arguments opponents make

• The bill only mandates a study, not any action, so it may produce a report that sits unused while drone interference with firefighting continues in the meantime.
• Counter-drone systems evaluated under the bill could raise privacy and civil liberties concerns if later deployed broadly, and those implications are not addressed here.
• Resources spent on studying a problem that existing FAA temporary flight restriction rules already prohibit may be better directed toward enforcing current law rather than generating new paperwork.

Tradeoffs

Gathering rigorous data before acting could lead to better-targeted solutions, but the 18-month study timeline delays any new protective measures while drone incursions may continue to disrupt firefighting operations.

Current status in Congress: Passed House.

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