U.S. Lawmakers Target DJI With $1.5 Billion Domestic Drone Bill
Rep. Pat Harrigan, R-N.C., introduced the American Drone Manufacturing Dominance Act of 2026, proposing to redirect $1.5 billion in Section 301 tariff revenue toward building a U.S. drone manufacturing base and severing law enforcement's reliance on Chinese-made systems. The bill makes federal grant funding conditional on agencies not acquiring foreign-made drones after January 1, 2027, setting a hard deadline for supply-chain reorientation.
Rep. Pat Harrigan, R-N.C., introduced the American Drone Manufacturing Dominance Act of 2026, proposing to redirect $1.5 billion in Section 301 tariff revenue toward building a U.S. drone manufacturing base and severing law enforcement's reliance on Chinese-made systems. The bill makes federal grant funding conditional on agencies not acquiring foreign-made drones after January 1, 2027, setting a hard deadline for supply-chain reorientation.
The Legislative Mechanism
The bill's funding structure is notable: money collected through Trump's Section 301 tariffs — levied on Chinese imports — would be recycled into subsidizing domestic drone production, a closed-loop that converts trade-war revenue into industrial policy. Harrigan, who sits on key subcommittees of the House Armed Services Committee, framed existing procurement patterns as a national-security exposure. The legislation would provide law enforcement agencies an off-ramp from current Chinese-made drone inventories before the 2027 grant-eligibility cutoff takes effect.
It is not yet clear when the bill will reach the House floor for a vote.
DJI's Grip on U.S. Law Enforcement
The market concentration the bill targets is pronounced. In Texas alone, the Federal Aviation Administration recorded 966 drones registered to police and sheriff's departments in 2024; 879 of those were produced by Da Jiang Innovations, the Chinese manufacturer commonly known as DJI. That 91% share in a single large state illustrates the depth of the dependency Harrigan's legislation is designed to unwind.
Local law enforcement's reliance on DJI is not unique to Texas. Across major U.S. cities, drone use has climbed — particularly in border security, where the technology's range and speed allow agents to monitor large stretches of terrain. A 2020 internal memorandum from then-U.S. Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott formally signaled Customs and Border Protection's intent to expand unmanned systems, noting capabilities beyond what existing CBP technology could achieve.
Security Rationale and the Ukraine Precedent
Harrigan cited battlefield evidence to anchor the bill's urgency. Drone deployment in the Ukraine conflict demonstrated that the technology has moved from niche to foundational in modern warfare, a shift he argues makes domestic production a prerequisite for national security rather than an industrial preference. Concerns about data exposure to the Chinese Communist Party through DJI hardware have circulated in policy circles for several years; the legislation is the latest and most specific Republican effort to translate those concerns into procurement law.
Washington, D.C., currently bans drone flights entirely under the federal Special Flight Rules Area governing its restricted airspace — a reminder that regulatory frameworks around the technology remain fragmented even as operational demand grows at the federal and local level. Harrigan's bill, if enacted, would impose a single national procurement standard tied to country of manufacture, bringing structural clarity to a market the source material describes as currently dominated by a Chinese company tied to the CCP.
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Filed by the newsroom of MarketPR on June 26, 2026. Source: MarketPR. Indicative figures are not investment advice.