Cotton pushes bill to help critical infrastructure defend against drone threat

Politics Sen. Tom Cotton pushes bill to allow drones to be stopped by critical infrastructure operators By Nicole Sganga Nicole Sganga Homeland Security and Justice Correspondent Nicole Sganga is CBS News' homeland security and justice correspondent. She is based in Washington, D.C., and reports for all shows and platforms. Read Full Bio Nicole Sganga April 23, 2026 / 10:01 AM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google Washington — Sen. Tom Cotton is pushing new legislation to grant operators of the nation's most sensitive infrastructure the authority to defend against and stop potentially hostile drones in real time, arguing that current law leaves our power grid and wastewater plants, along with other high-risk sites exposed to emerging aerial threats.The bill, dubbed the "Critical Infrastructure Airspace Defense Act," would allow certain private-sector operators — after federal training and certification — to detect, track and mitigate unauthorized drones posing a "credible threat" to designated facilities. The bill aims to close what lawmakers and security officials describe as a persistent gap in U.S. counter-drone policy: private owners are responsible for securing critical sites but often lack the legal authority to strike back against airborne threats."Our hospitals, power plants, water treatment facilities, and other critical infrastructure sites can't remain sitting ducks," Cotton said in a statement shared with CBS News. The legislation builds on bipartisan counter-drone provisions included in the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act and reflects growing concern in Washington over how inexpensive, commercially available drones could be weaponized against key domestic targets.What the bill would doAt its core, the bill extends limited counter-unmanned aircraft system — or counter-UAS — authority beyond only federal agencies and some state and local law enforcement to include a subset of private infrastructure operato...