H.R. 1386 — To establish a Department of State Domestic Protection Mission relating to unmanned aircraft system and unmanned aircraft.

This section revises the Department of Defense unmanned aircraft countermeasure authority by transferring it to the Secretary of State for covered facilities and assets, and by expanding the list of laws the Secretary may act notwithstanding to include 49 U.S.C. § 46502, 18 U.S.C. §§ 32, 1030, 1367, and chapters 119 and 206, and section 705 of the Communications Act of 1934. It authorizes the Secretary of State, including Bureau of Diplomatic Security personnel and contractors with safety, security, or protection duties, to take specified actions against an unmanned aircraft system or unmanned aircraft when necessary to mitigate a credible threat, as defined by the Secretary in consultation with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Those actions include detecting, identifying, monitoring, and tracking the aircraft; warning the operator; disrupting control; seizing or exercising control; confiscating the aircraft; and using reasonable force to disable, damage, or destroy it. This section establishes a new research, testing, training, and evaluation requirement before any such counter-UAS technology may be used. As background, the provision covers equipment used to detect, track, disrupt, or disable drones near protected diplomatic facilities. The Secretary of State must conduct research, testing, training, and evaluation of any equipment, including electronic equipment, before operational use, and personnel who do not have protection duties may participate in those activities. The Secretary must coordinate procedures for those activities with the FAA before they begin so the FAA can ensure they do not interfere with airport operations, navigation, air traffic services, or the safe and efficient operation of the national airspace system. This section revises forfeiture, regulations, guidance, and coordination requirements for seized unmanned aircraft systems. It provides that any seized unmanned aircraft system or unmanned aircraft is subject to forfeiture to the United States under chapter 46 of title 18, rather than under the prior general forfeiture language. It also directs the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Transportation, in consultation with the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, to prescribe regulations and issue guidance. In addition, it requires coordination with the FAA, the Federal Communications Commission, and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration before developing actions, issuing guidance, or otherwise implementing the section, to preserve safe airport operations, navigation, air traffic services, and the safe and efficient operation of the national airspace system. This section establishes privacy protections for communications intercepted or accessed under the authority. The regulations or guidance must ensure that interception or acquisition of communications to or from an unmanned aircraft system is consistent with the First and Fourth Amendments and applicable Federal law, is limited to what is necessary to support the authorized counter-UAS actions, and that records of such communications are maintained only for as long as necessary.