S. 1817 — Drone Infrastructure Inspection Grant Act

This bill establishes programs within the Department of Transportation (DOT) to support the use of small, unmanned aircraft systems (commonly known as drones) when inspecting, operating, maintaining, repairing, modernizing, or constructing road infrastructure, electric grid infrastructure, water infrastructure, or other critical infrastructure. Specifically, DOT must award grants to state, tribal, or local governments; metropolitan planning organizations; or groups of those entities to purchase or otherwise use drones to support the inspection, operation, construction, maintenance, modernization, or repair of critical infrastructure to increase efficiency, reduce costs, improve worker and c...