Commerce Committee Advances NASA Reauthorization Bill with Peters-led Provision to Protect NASA Facilities from Dangerous Drones

WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Senator Gary Peters (MI) helped the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee advance the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Act of 2026 to the full Senate. The bipartisan legislation, which reauthorizes funding for NASA for two years, includes a provision led by Senator Peters to provide NASA with authority to detect, monitor, identify and track rogue drone systems that pose credible threats to NASA facilities or space assets. The legislation now heads to the full Senate for consideration.

"This bill lays the groundwork needed to ensure the United States remains the global leader in space exploration and scientific research by protecting critical NASA programs from harmful funding cuts proposed by the Trump Administration," said Senator Peters, a member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. "The bill also includes a provision I fought for to help NASA better protect its assets from drones, which pose an increasingly serious threat to sensitive launch operations and NASA personnel. I'll keep working to ensure this bipartisan bill becomes law."

The NASA Act of 2026 provides robust funding to advance NASA's critical work and maintain American leadership in aeronautics, space exploration, Earth and space science, and space technology development.

Under Peters' provision in the bill, NASA's drone monitoring activities must be conducted in partnership with the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration to ensure its counter-drone activities don't impact the safety of national air traffic. The provision also provides important privacy protections for consumers by minimizing the amount of data intercepted by NASA.

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