Ashley Moody Warns Of Security Concerns Posed By Drones After Man Caught Photographing Military Bases

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During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Sen. Ashley Moody (R-FL) spoke about the security concerns of drones.

Transcript

00:00It's go behind my fellow junior senator. Thank you Mr. Chairman for holding this

00:04hearing and for all of the witnesses for taking time away from your jobs and

00:08your families to be here in Washington especially to my fellow Floridians very

00:12proud of you. Thank you for being here and representing the great free state of

00:16Florida. I think something that resonated Mr. Dixon what you said was act with a

00:22sense of urgency. Something that we in Congress don't take to heart a lot around

00:27here. As a mother I certainly do because I know what we do right now in this

00:32Congress will protect or leave vulnerable many Americans and certainly our

00:38children. In Florida we are home to many military installations. Certainly we have

00:47three combatant commands in our state. The sensitivity of what is taking place

00:53within the state of Florida not only on military bases also on our Space Coast.

00:58Most of our launches are done from Kennedy Space Center. So we have a lot of

01:03sensitive personnel, information, movements, commands right in the heart of Florida.

01:11And I know that Sergeant Dooley with FHP you are coordinating the UAV program

01:18there and you assist when there are incursions and military space and

01:23violations and use state assets to help with that. I want to thank you for being

01:29an expert and for your attention on that. One of the things that I have been trying

01:33to highlight and have passed legislation to do is to stop visas right now. Student

01:38visas particularly from the Chinese government because they have laws in place

01:42place right now that require their citizens to gather intelligence and work

01:47with the CPCP and yet we're importing 300,000 a year into the United States. And

01:53particularly I want to point out an example in August of 2021 we allowed in to

01:59study one of these students to study at the University of Minnesota and

02:05Florida and particularly thereafter we're told that he was gathering

02:11information from military bases. On January 18th of 2024 the FBI arrested him

02:16in San Francisco for operating an unarmed aircraft system in violation of

02:22national defense airspace and photographing defense installations. A

02:28further investigation found that he had taken photographs and used a drone to

02:34photograph the naval base in Norfolk Virginia here on a here on a visa to

02:41study at the University. Thankfully he was finally deported just a couple of weeks

02:47ago and sent home. Thankfully we have an administration that's taking these

02:53things seriously now but this is a weakness I believe in our espionage act in the

02:58sense that we outlaw photographing military bases using drones. In fact in this particular case

03:07they found video on this drone but they could only charge the photographs. It's a

03:13weakness in the evolution of technology that we have failed to update our laws. And

03:20so I would ask you Sergeant is this something that you believe we need to

03:25shore up to make sure we can criminally charge when we don't just have

03:30foreign agents taking photographs of sensitive military bases and

03:35installations but also video. Yes no I totally agree and we also have some

03:40pretty robust statutes in Florida that also allow law enforcement or public safety

03:45to have at least a little bit more teeth in the bite when we do have some type of

03:49these situations. Florida statute 330.41 and 934.50 which also protect

03:56people's rights to privacy with drone operations etc. So I completely agree that

04:00we should figure something out and make it to where these things can happen.

04:04Senator may I possibly add one moment I just want to say Mr. Chairman today I'm going to

04:10introduce the Drone Espionage Act legislation which would include it would

04:17strengthen the Espionage Act of 1917 and include videography of sensitive national

04:21defense sites as a crime include videography in addition to photographs.

04:26This is an issue that doesn't just affect Florida all of the members here have

04:30sensitive military sites in their states. Many congressional members have states

04:34where folks have come over here on visas foreign nationals have been caught

04:39videoing sensitive military sites in this country and we have to put it into it.

04:45It has to be a crime and I appreciate the time and I'm sorry I have run out of time

04:50and I will leave to the chairman whether or not he wants to permit additional testimony.

04:54Is there any comment from any of you on our last point?

04:57Yes please. I just wanted to comment on the last point.

05:01I also build drones and I work on national security issues.

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