S. 663 119th Congress Senate

DEFENSE Act

Official title: A bill to authorize the Secretary of Homeland Security or the Attorney General to deputize a State or local law enforcement officer to protect certain events w… Show full official titleShow less

Official title: A bill to authorize the Secretary of Homeland Security or the Attorney General to deputize a State or local law enforcement officer to protect certain events with temporary flight restrictions, and for other purposes.

Introduced: February 20, 2025 Introduced by: Tom Cotton Republican · Arkansas See on congress.gov

Transportation and Public Works

Everywhere this bill has been 2 steps

Introduced

In committee

Reported out

Passed House

Passed Senate

To President

Became law

Feb 20, 2025

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

Feb 20, 2025

Introduced in Senate

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What's happening now February 20, 2025

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

Plain-English summary Congressional Research Service

Disabling Enemy Flight Entry and Neutralizing Suspect Equipment Act or the DEFENSE Act

This bill allows the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or the Department of Justice (DOJ) to deputize state or local law enforcement officers to take certain drone countermeasures to protect stadiums and other public gatherings.

Specifically, DHS or DOJ may provide state or local law enforcement officers with the authority to identify, monitor, and track drones; warn drone operators; disrupt or take control of drones; or use reasonable force to disable, damage, and seize or destroy drones deemed to pose a threat.

This authority applies for the purposes of protecting an event, stadium, or venue; certain large public gatherings (e.g., gatherings that are primarily outdoors with an estimated attendance of at least 100,000 people); or other public gatherings protected by specific temporary flight restrictions imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Prior to being deputized, a state or local law enforcement officer must complete training in the use of the drone countermeasure authority.

DHS or DOJ, in coordination with the Department of Transportation and the FAA, must exercise oversight over the use of this authority by deputized state or local law enforcement officers.

Finally, the bill limits the equipment authorized for detecting, identifying, monitoring, or tracking drones to systems or technologies that are included on a list of authorized equipment maintained by DHS, in coordination with DOJ, the FAA, the Federal Communications Commission, and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

Related & companion bills 1

Bill text 1 version

Introduced in Senate Formatted Text PDF Formatted XML

Source documents hosted by congress.gov.

Committees of jurisdiction 1

Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
Senate

Lobbying activity 14

Registered lobbyists who named this bill in their disclosure filings. Source: federal Lobbying Disclosure Act filings.

NUCLEAR ENERGY INSTITUTE, INC.
for NUCLEAR ENERGY INSTITUTE, INC · District of Columbia · 3rd Quarter 2026 (July 1 - Sep 30)
NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION
for NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION · District of Columbia · 3rd Quarter 2026 (July 1 - Sep 30)
NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION
for NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION · District of Columbia · 2nd Quarter 2026 (Apr 1 - June 30)
NUCLEAR ENERGY INSTITUTE, INC.
for NUCLEAR ENERGY INSTITUTE, INC · District of Columbia · 2nd Quarter 2026 (Apr 1 - June 30)
NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION
for NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION · District of Columbia · 1st Quarter 2026 (Jan 1 - Mar 31)
NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION
for NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION · District of Columbia · 4th Quarter 2025 (Oct 1 - Dec 31)

Bodies those filers lobbied

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
14 filings
SENATE
14 filings
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
5 filings
Transportation, Dept of (DOT)
5 filings
White House Office
5 filings
Defense, Dept of (DOD)
2 filings
Energy, Dept of
2 filings
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
2 filings

A filing lists the bills it worked on and the parts of government it contacted in separate sections, so these are the bodies those filers named anywhere in the filing, not a per-bill breakdown.

See all 14 filings →

Cosponsors 1

Rosen, Jacky

Nevada · Feb 20, 2025

Cite this page click to expand

APA

U.S. Congress. (2026). S. 663: DEFENSE Act. 119th Congress. Open America. https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-663/

MLA

"S. 663: DEFENSE Act." 119th Congress, 2026, Open America, https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-663/.

Bluebook (legal)

S. 663, 119th Cong. (2026), https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-663/.

Markdown link

[S. 663: DEFENSE Act](https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-663/)