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To exempt the Secretary of Energy of certain prohibitions with respect to an unmanned aircraft system, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill exempts the Secretary of Energy from federal prohibitions on procuring, operating, and using federal funds for unmanned aircraft systems (drones) from foreign entities, exemptions that previously applied only to the Secretary of State and certain other officials. It grants the Secretary of Energy authority to determine classified tracking usage related to these drone restrictions and provides the Department of Energy an accounting exception related to covered unmanned aircraft systems. The bill also expands the Secretary of Energy's authority to protect nuclear facilities and assets from unmanned aircraft, clarifying this applies to facilities that store, transport, or use special nuclear material or conduct research and manufacturing of non-nuclear nuclear weapons components.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
- Sen. Peters, Gary C. [D-MI] (D-MI)
1 cosponsor
Actions (2)
- May 14, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. · senate
- May 14, 2025 Introduced in Senate
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
May 14, 2025
Mr. Peters (for himself and Mrs. Blackburn) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
A BILL
To exempt the Secretary of Energy of certain prohibitions with respect to an unmanned aircraft system, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Nuclear Ecosystem Drone Defense Act of 2025” or the “NEDD Act of 2025”.
SEC. 2. AUTHORITY OF SECRETARY OF ENERGY WITH RESPECT TO COVERED UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS FROM COVERED FOREIGN ENTITIES.
(a) Exemption From Prohibition on Procurement of Covered Unmanned Aircraft Systems From Covered Foreign Entities.—Section 1823(b) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 (Public Law 118-31; 137 Stat. 692) is amended, in the matter preceding paragraph
(1), by inserting “Secretary of Energy,” after “Secretary of State,”.
(b) Exemption From Prohibition on Operation of Covered Unmanned Aircraft Systems From Covered Foreign Entities.—Section 1824(b) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 (Public Law 118-31; 137 Stat. 693) is amended, in the matter preceding paragraph
(1), by inserting “Secretary of Energy,” after “Secretary of State,”.
(c) Exemption From Prohibition on Use of Federal Funds for Procurement and Operation of Covered Unmanned Aircraft Systems From Covered Foreign Entities.—Section 1825(b) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 (Public Law 118-31; 137 Stat.
694) is amended, in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by inserting “Secretary of Energy,” after “Secretary of State,”.
(d) Granting Secretary of Energy Authority To Determine Usage of Classified Tracking.—Section 1827(b) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 (Public Law 118-31; 137 Stat.
696) is amended by striking “the Secretary’s designee” and inserting “the Secretary of Energy, as appropriate, or their respective designees”.
(e) Granting Secretary of Energy Accounting Exception.—Section 1827(c) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 (Public Law 118-31; 137 Stat. 696) is amended by inserting “the Department of Energy,” after “the Department of Transportation,”.
(f) Expansion of Secretary of Energy Authority Related to the Protection of Certain Nuclear Facilities and Assets From Unmanned Aircrafts or Unmanned Aircraft Systems.—Section 4510(e)(1)(C) of the Atomic Energy Defense Act (50 U.S.C. 2661(e)(1)(C)) is amended to read as follows:
“(C) owned by the United States or contracted to the United States—
“(i) to store, transport, or use special nuclear material; or
“(ii) for the research, design, manufacture, or production of non-nuclear components for nuclear weapons.”. <all>
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