“A bill to exempt the Secretary of Energy of certain prohibitions with respect to an unmanned aircraft system, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section grants the Secretary of Energy exemptions from prohibitions on procuring, operating, and using federal funds for covered unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) from covered foreign entities (i.e., those posing national security risks, such as from China) by adding the Secretary to the list of exempted officials in secs. 1823(b), 1824(b), and 1825(b) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 (NDAA). The section further (1) authorizes the Secretary of Energy, as appropriate, to determine usage of classified UAS tracking under sec. 1827(b) of the NDAA (previously, the Secretary’s designee); (2) adds the Department of Energy to the accounting exception for UAS data under sec. 1827(c) of the NDAA; and (3) expands the definition of covered facilities or assets under sec. 4510(e)(1)(C) of the Atomic Energy Defense Act (50 U.S.C. 2661) to include those owned or contracted by the United States to store, transport, or use special nuclear material, or for research, design, manufacture, or production of non-nuclear components for nuclear weapons (previously, to store or use special nuclear material). (Thus, the Secretary of Energy gains authority to detect, disrupt, seize, or destroy threatening UAS at a broader range of nuclear-related sites.)