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Iowa HF 2646: Fear-Based Drone Legislation That Will Waste Taxpayer Money and Cost Lives

Iowa House File 2646 is moving through the legislature. As drone operators, small business owners, educators, and first responders who rely on this technology every day, we believe this bill is built on fear rather than facts — and that Iowans deserve better.

What Does HF 2646 Actually Do?

Iowa House File 2646 would prohibit the state and its political subdivisions — including local governments, fire departments, sheriff’s offices, schools, universities, and public broadcasters like Iowa PBS — from purchasing, leasing, or operating drones made by companies on the FCC’s “Covered List.” That list includes DJI, the dominant drone manufacturer used by the overwhelming majority of public safety agencies in Iowa and across the country. Agencies that already own these drones would be required to develop a replacement plan using only DoD-approved “Blue UAS” platforms.

This sounds reasonable on the surface. But when you examine the evidence — or more accurately, the lack of evidence — the picture looks very different.

The Security Threat Has Never Been Demonstrated

The core justification for this bill is that DJI drones pose a national security risk by transmitting data to China. But that claim has been investigated repeatedly — and the evidence simply isn’t there.

Congress recognized that a definitive review was needed and mandated a federal security audit of DJI in Section 1709 of the FY2024 NDAA, with a deadline of December 23, 2025. That audit was never performed. DJI sent letters to five federal agencies — DHS, DOD, FBI, NSA, and ODNI — in March, June, and December 2025 urging them to begin the review. No agency responded or initiated the process. DJI was placed on the FCC Covered List not because an audit found a problem, but because no agency stepped up to conduct the review at all.

Iowa HF 2646 is built on that foundation: a presumption of guilt, an audit that was mandated but never done, and a federal list that reflects bureaucratic inaction rather than a proven threat. That is not evidence-based policy. That is fear-based legislation.

It Will Cost Iowa Taxpayers Millions

Setting aside the lack of evidence, the practical cost to Iowa taxpayers would be enormous. DoD-approved “Blue UAS” alternatives are 8 to 14 times more expensive than comparable DJI platforms, according to a government memo prepared for the Biden administration. Conservative estimates put the premium at 2x to 5x for comparable capability. Iowa agencies — including every sheriff’s office, fire department, city government, university, K–12 school district, and Iowa PBS — would be forced to scrap perfectly functional, taxpayer-funded equipment and replace it with far more expensive alternatives that, in many cases, perform worse.

We don’t have to speculate about what this looks like. Florida already did it. Florida’s DJI ban became a $200 million disaster: the state grounded $200 million worth of functional public safety drones, provided only $25 million in replacement funding, and the approved replacements failed five times in 18 months — while DJI drones had zero failures over five years. Florida State University’s Homeland Security program could only deploy one drone after Hurricane Idalia because its DJI fleet was sitting in a closet. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue — which used DJI drones during the Surfside condo collapse — had to ground 41 aircraft. The University of South Florida was tasked with conducting a security analysis of the confiscated drones. More than 18 months later, no findings have ever been published. If the drones were actually dangerous, we would know by now.

Iowa should not follow Florida’s blueprint.

It Will Make Iowans Less Safe

The human cost of this legislation is not abstract. A January 2026 Pilot Institute survey of 8,056 drone operators found that 97% of public safety agencies use DJI drones. Only 13% use Skydio — the most prominent American alternative. When Arizona Fire Chief Luis Martinez warned Congress that “lives are going to be lost because this air capability is going to be taken away,” he was speaking for thousands of agencies across the country — including right here in Iowa.

In February 2026, the Story County Sheriff’s Office used a DJI thermal drone to locate an elderly man who had fallen into a ravine near the Greenbelt Trail south of Story City. He called 911 reporting broken ribs and was unable to stand, alone in a remote area in winter conditions. Deputies deployed a DJI drone, located the man from the air using thermal imaging, relayed precise GPS coordinates to paramedics, and got him to Mary Greeley Medical Center for treatment. KCCI reported on the rescue, noting how critical the drone was to the outcome. Story County now maintains around-the-clock UAS on-call coverage because of exactly these situations.

Iowa State Patrol uses DJI drones for accident reconstruction, including a 50-car pileup on I-80 that was mapped in roughly 35 minutes by drone — versus the three to four hours it would have taken by traditional methods in a snowstorm. That is traffic reopened faster, emergency personnel safer, and scenes documented more accurately.

The survey found that 86% of public safety users cited higher purchase costs as the primary barrier to switching to American-made alternatives. These agencies are not choosing DJI because they are naive about security concerns — they are choosing it because it works, it is affordable, and nothing else comes close at scale.

The Ripple Effects Go Far Beyond Law Enforcement

HF 2646 does not just affect police and fire. It affects every Iowa institution that relies on affordable drone technology:

  • Iowa PBS uses drones for aerial coverage and documentary production.
  • Iowa universities use drones for agricultural research, environmental monitoring, STEM education, and emergency management training.
  • K–12 schools use drones in career and technical education programs, introducing students to aviation, engineering, and data science.
  • Municipalities like the City of West Des Moines use drones for infrastructure inspection, stormwater management, and public works.
  • Small businesses — including drone photographers, videographers, agricultural operators, and real estate professionals across Iowa — depend on affordable, capable drone technology to compete and serve their clients.

Forcing all of these institutions to scrap existing fleets and purchase 2x to 14x more expensive replacements — without any published evidence of a security threat — would divert millions of dollars away from education, public safety, and basic city services. The burden would fall hardest on smaller agencies and rural communities with the least budget flexibility.

We Support American Drone Manufacturing — But Not This Way

Let us be clear: we want to see a strong, competitive American drone industry. The United States should be a global leader in drone technology, manufacturing, and innovation. We are fully behind that goal.

But protectionism is not the same as competition. Mandating that agencies buy only from a narrow approved list — before the U.S. industrial base is ready to compete on price and capability — does not make American manufacturers stronger. It shields them from having to earn the business. The result is what we see in the data: Blue UAS platforms that cost 8 to 14 times more, that the Department of Interior said reduced their sensor capacity by 95% and were suitable for only 20% of their mission needs. That is not a path to innovation — it is a path to a “Cuban car industry” for drones: protected from competition, stuck with increasingly outdated technology, while the rest of the world moves on.

True support for American manufacturing means demanding that domestic producers compete and win on merit — better products, better prices, better service. We are not there yet. And rushing to ban the competition before we are ready will set the entire U.S. drone sector back, not push it forward.

What We’re Asking For Instead

We are not asking Iowa lawmakers to ignore security concerns. We are asking them to base policy on evidence, not assumption. Specifically, we urge:

  1. Complete the federally mandated security audit. Congress required it. DJI has asked for it. Iowa should demand that federal agencies fulfill this obligation before taking any state-level action that presumes guilt.
  2. Establish clear, evidence-based security standards. Any drone used in sensitive government operations should meet published technical standards for encryption, data localization, and access control — applied equally to all vendors, foreign and domestic.
  3. Protect existing public safety and educational fleets. Agencies that already own and operate DJI drones configured to best-practice security standards should not be forced to replace them without a demonstrated reason to do so.
  4. Allow mission-based waivers. Where no American-made alternative can match necessary capability at reasonable cost, agencies should have a clear waiver process — so that first responders, researchers, and educators are not left without tools while waiting for the domestic market to catch up.

The Bottom Line

Iowa HF 2646 would scrap millions of dollars in working public safety equipment, burden schools, universities, municipalities, and small businesses with costs they cannot afford, and remove life-saving tools from first responders — all based on a security threat that has been investigated multiple times and never confirmed, and a federal audit that was mandated by Congress and never performed.

Iowa deserves better than fear-based legislation. We urge every Iowa drone operator, pilot, first responder, educator, farmer, and business owner to contact your state representative and senator today and ask them to oppose Division I of HF 2646.

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Track the bill: Iowa HF 2646 — Bill History

References and Further Reading

Iowans for Drone Freedom is a community of drone operators, small business owners, first responders, educators, and hobbyists advocating for evidence-based drone policy in Iowa and across the country.

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