Congress
Republicans clash over drone crackdown
A Capitol Hill push by GOP China hawks to impose new restrictions on Shenzhen-based aerial drone maker DJI is facing resistance from Republicans who warn the company’s products have become critical tools for U.S. farming and energy firms.
The fight is playing out after Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, a close ally of President Donald Trump, secured the crackdown in the House version of a must-pass defense policy bill. At stake for DJI are new restrictions on its ability to offer products in the U.S.
Stefanik is making the case that the company’s products expose Americans’ data to the Chinese government — an allegation that the company denies as it lobbies hard to make the case that it operates independently of Chinese officials.
But Stefanik and her allies are facing pushback in the Senate, which opted against including the provision in its version of the bill and where Republicans are raising concerns about potential negative impacts on U.S. businesses and law enforcement. The two chambers are working to resolve their differences in the sprawling defense bill so they can enact it by year’s end.
“They are the primary drone maker in the United States at a reasonable price,” Senate Agriculture Chair John Boozman, an Arkansas Republican, said of DJI in an interview. “This technology is being used more and more. … That’s the crux of the problem.”
The battle over DJI marks the latest flash point among Republicans over how to counter China without sacrificing U.S. business interests. Trump, whose election in 2016 was a boon to the party’s China hawk wing, has himself sought to ease tensions with Beijing in recent months after initiating a trade war. It’s unclear that Stefanik and her allies will prevail with their campaign against DJI.
DJI is the dominant global producer of commercial drones, which it markets to enterprise customers for uses in inspecting infrastructure, surveying land and public safety.
“There are real cost ramifications for commercial enterprises, not just farming,” Sen. John Hoeven, a North Dakota Republican, said in an interview. “You’ve got the energy industry, where they’re tracking transmission lines, rescue and recovery, all these different other uses. It’s something we’ve got to figure out.”
Boozman and Hoeven say they also have national security concerns about DJI, but Stefanik has been pushing provisions that would take an all-or-nothing approach, rejecting the notion that economic impacts should hold lawmakers back from immediately barring the sale of new DJI products in the U.S.
“It is very important for us to have U.S. drones and not have that data be turned over to the CCP,” she said in an interview. “It has been an issue we’ve worked on for a number of years with traditional bipartisan support to protect our information, whether it’s the topography of their regions or on the installations … or potential troop movements.”
The legislative language Stefanik and other China hawks are pursuing comes as DJI already faces potential restrictions on its ability to sell products in the U.S. after Dec. 23, thanks to an amendment Stefanik secured in last year’s defense authorization bill.
That earlier provision requires federal agencies to audit DJI and another Chinese drone manufacturer, Autel, for national security risks. If no such audit is performed, a ban on domestic imports will go into effect. No national security agency has indicated it plans to conduct the audit in time to meet the deadline.
The new proposal Republicans are now debating would require another federal audit of drone equipment, including software and spectrum band products, developed in countries that are “foreign adversaries.” The language once again targets DJI and Autel.
DJI has spent nearly $3 million on federal lobbying this year, according to disclosures filed with Congress, in appeals to lawmakers from states and districts that rely on its drones to support critical sectors of their local economies – particularly agricultural and law enforcement activities.
“The fundamental point is, this isn’t really about data security,” DJI global head of policy Adam Welsh said in an interview. “This is, frankly, about protectionism and trying to protect a U.S. industry.”
Representatives of DJI’s enterprise customer base acknowledge national security concerns associated with the drones. But they are also warning against the repercussions of a full-out ban.
“It would have a very significant level of repercussions, full stop,” National Sheriffs’ Association CEO Jonathan Thompson said in an interview. “It’s a little like taking cars out of a sheriff’s office and saying you can’t use any cars. These are ubiquitous.”
Even the federal government has had trouble weaning itself off the Chinese-made drones.
After the Interior Department prohibited the purchase of new DJI drones in 2020, the Government Accountability Office found in a follow-up review that the removal of foreign-made drone fleets had significantly impaired the operations of the Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service.
“BLM and NPS do not have enough drones for their operations to manage or prevent wildland fires and have shifted some operations to riskier, more costly methods, such as helicopters,” the GAO said in the report.
Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican who is championing a proposal in his chamber that mirrors Stefanik’s language, said in an interview that he has run into resistance at the Senate Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over aviation and technology issues and is chaired by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
“Commerce did not oppose the inclusion of a DJI audit in the [defense bill],” said Phoebe Keller, a committee spokesperson for Cruz. “Staff provided edits to the text and engaged in good faith to clear the language. The sponsors ultimately chose not to engage further but we remain happy to work with the sponsors if and when they decide to reengage.”
A person granted anonymity to share details of the negotiations said committee staff conveyed concerns to Scott’s team about the ramifications of banning drones relied upon by first responders
Scott rejects concerns that there aren’t yet viable alternative drones being produced in the U.S.
“There’s American companies, and there will be,” said Scott, a former Florida governor and health care CEO. “I’m a business guy. If you told me there was an opportunity, I could figure it out pretty fast.”
A top pollster for President Donald Trump is pushing back on recent public polling showing Republican Mike Rogers trailing progressive Abdul El-Sayed in the marquee Michigan Senate race.
Tony Fabrizio, who is conducting polling for Rogers, says the polls released this month are over-sampling Democratic-leaning voters, specifically college-educated and Black voters, according to an internal memo obtained by Blue Light News. A Susquehanna poll released this month showed El-Sayed leading by seven points and a TIPP poll showed him leading by four points.
El-Sayed’s lead in those polls is a “fake narrative,” Fabrizio wrote. His polling for AARP — conducted alongside Democratic firm Impact Research — showed the race essentially tied.
The warning follows huge polling misses in the Democratic primaries in the Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida, which he wrote were “some of the most egregious examples of public polling failures in recent memory.” It’s also a sign that Republicans are wary of the string of bad polling numbers for Rogers in the race, which is crucial for determining control of the chamber.
Jim Lee, CEO of Susquehanna Polling and Research, told Blue Light News that the firm did not oversample any demographics. “I think their head is in the sand,” Lee said, noting in part what he said was a gap in enthusiasm between Democratic and Republican voters this cycle.
TIPP didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Fabrizio, in the memo, argued on the Susquehanna poll: “50% of the sample in this survey is college-educated – making them massively overrepresented to what they should be. We took a look at 2022 and 2024 Exit Polls and VoteCast data and, as shown below, there is no indication that the Michigan electorate will be anywhere near 50% college-educated. In fact, it is unlikely they will be even 40% college-educated.”
He also noted “a huge gap” between college-educated and non-college educated voters.
“This was the driving issue of the public polling misses for President Trump in 2016 and 2024, especially in the Upper Midwest states of Michigan and Wisconsin,” Fabrizio added. “By increasing college-educated voters by 10+ points, and thus decreasing non-college educated voters by the same, we can pretty much guarantee this poll is significantly overestimating El-Sayed’s vote share.”
President Donald Trump and hemp industry lobbyists are hoping to win a final vote on Capitol Hill next week to skirt a ban on intoxicating products — with shutdown politics as leverage.
Nine months ago, Congress cleared a bill to close a loophole created in 2018 that allowed the sale of some hemp-derived products containing types of THC colloquially known as “diet weed.” That ban is supposed to take effect in mid-November, or roughly 11 weeks, to limit overall THC levels in hemp products that can get people high — including gummies, canned drinks, pills and vapes.
But Trump and industry leaders successfully lobbied Senate leaders to add language to a government funding patch earlier this month to delay the ban until mid-December, with the administration promising instead to finalize regulations cracking down on how the products are made and sold.
Now House Republican leaders are aiming to clear that bill for Trump’s signature early next week, according to three people granted anonymity to disclose private discussions. And many GOP lawmakers are not pleased at the prospect of being rolled.
Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.) told reporters last week that he expected House lawmakers would “iron out” some “sticking points” with the Senate-passed funding bill, “particularly the hemp issue,” rather than pass the legislation without changes — which appears to be GOP leadership’s current plan.
Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) was more blunt: “it is morally reprehensible to threaten a shutdown over a loophole Congress agreed to close to less than a year ago,” he said in a statement Thursday.
Yet despite fierce pushback from lawmakers warning that the intoxicating products are harming Americans, hemp industry leaders are preparing for a victory, betting members of Congress ultimately care more about swiftly passing legislation to avert a Sept. 30 government shutdown before the midterms.
“Any effort to try to shut down the government — over a one-month delay on a hemp issue — I don’t think is going to fly well with most members of Congress,” Jonathan Miller, a top lawyer for the U.S. Hemp Roundtable advocacy group, said in an interview this week.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment about its plans for imposing new rules on hemp products in the coming months. But the Trump administration is expected to need more time than mid-December to finalize regulations, so hemp industry representatives are discussing a “regulatory bridge” that would impose temporary rules while continuing to avoid a full ban, according to Miller.
That could include restricting purchase to adults age 21 and older, blocking imports from China, mandating certain manufacturing practices, cracking down on copycat products that look like popular candy or potato chips and requiring transparency in product labeling.
While lawmakers have been back home over their summer break, hemp industry leaders have fanned out across the country to make their case for this plan. “The hemp industry does not have an August recess,” Christopher Lackner, head of the Hemp Beverage Alliance, said in an interview this month of the group’s work to facilitate passage of the Senate-passed funding bill.
Trump administration officials have also been telling reluctant lawmakers they will use the one-month delay to work on regulations. “The White House has committed to me that they’re committed to regulate the industry,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said in an interview this month.
Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), who fought in the Senate to retain the ban as originally intended, said White House officials have said “they don’t want another extension, and I agree with that.”
In a statement, Ricketts said that “manufactured high-THC products like gummies and drinks are putting our kids in the hospital” and need to be taken “off our shelves.”
Some supporters of the ban say the White House and industry are just employing delay tactics to get to December, when lawmakers will face another pressure campaign to delay the ban while they are motivated to avert a shutdown before leaving town for the holidays.
“What they’re really after is to try to jam this on some must-pass, end-of-the-year funding,” Budd told reporters earlier this month. “That’s really what this is about.”
Budd fought to block the delay in the Senate as part of the government funding measure, but his amendment to that end was shot down 61-32 before the chamberpassed the legislation, sending it on for House action.
Trump personally called Budd after the senator filed the amendment and talked about creating federal regulations for hemp products, according to a Senate aide granted anonymity to describe the private discussion.
Days later, Budd demanded a vote on the amendment anyway and continues to slam the hemp industry.
“It is clear that businesses that sell unregulated, intoxicating products will stop at nothing to protect their bottom line, even at the expense of children’s health and safety,” he said in a statement this week.
Besides lawmakers fighting to ban intoxicating hemp products, others are pushing alongside the White House and industry for federal regulations.
Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-W.Va.) has crafted legislation that would direct the Food and Drug Administration to create federal rules for intoxicating hemp products and wants to see mandates for third-party testing, as well as new THC limits per serving.
Griffith told reporters Thursday the “deadline push” in the Senate-passed government funding measure “is not long enough” to finalize necessary regulations.
Since state limits for THC vary widely throughout the country and the federal government has taken years to step in since the hemp loophole was created in 2018, Griffith argued it makes more sense to regulate the intoxicating products than to enact a federal ban.
“That horse is out of the barn,” he said. “What we need to do is corral it.”
Kelsey Brugger, Amanda Friedman and Rachel Shin contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump’s $400-million super PAC is taking its first steps into the general election: hosting a public event in battleground Michigan, headlined by Vice President JD Vance.
Battleground Republicans have been clamoring for Trump’s MAGA Inc. to spend in competitive races. The Michigan event is an early indicator of how the massive group might seek to use its funds to help the party keep control of Washington.
Vance will be joined in Sterling, Michigan, on Monday by GOP Senate nominee Mike Rogers, 10th District nominee Mike Bouchard Jr. and gubernatorial nominee John James, along with several other Michigan Republicans, according to an event advisory from MAGA Inc.
The GOP sees Michigan’s open seat as its best Senate pickup target this fall as Rogers faces former public health leader and progressive Abdul El-Sayed, who emerged from a grueling primary earlier this month.
“MAGA Inc. will be hosting events throughout the nation to ensure that Republicans retain control of Congress in order to finish cleaning up the mess the Biden-Harris-Pelosi-Schumer Democrats left,” said Alex Pfeiffer, spokesperson for MAGA Inc. “We’re not going back to their record inflation, open borders, and surging crime.”
MAGA Inc. is sitting on more funds than any other super PAC, and Republican donors and battleground candidates have been hoping it will unleash that money to help the party keep control of the House and Senate.
So far, the group has only spent only a few million dollars out of its massive fundraising haul, and its funds have largely gone to competitive Republican primaries. Most recently, it spent $827,000 on phone calls and text messages to boost Sen. Darline Graham (R-S.C.) in the state’s special primary.
-
Uncategorized2 years ago
Bob Good to step down as Freedom Caucus chair this week
-
The Josh Fourrier Show2 years agoDOOMSDAY: Trump won, now what?
-
Politics2 years agoFormer ‘Squad’ members launching ‘Bowman and Bush’ YouTube show
-
The Dictatorship2 years agoLuigi Mangione acknowledges public support in first official statement since arrest
-
Politics2 years agoFormer Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron launches Senate bid
-
Politics2 years agoBlue Light News’s Editorial Director Ryan Hutchins speaks at Blue Light News’s 2025 Governors Summit
-
The Dictatorship2 years agoPete Hegseth’s tenure at the Pentagon goes from bad to worse
-
The Dictatorship12 months agoMike Johnson sums up the GOP’s arrogant position on military occupation with two words