Iowa Senator Kent Sorenson, along with five other Republican colleagues [ Rick Bertrand, Dennis Guth, Brad Zaun, Sandra Greiner, Nancy Boettger ] introduced SF 276 on February 27,2013. Iowa becomes the 21st state to introduce legislation designed to reject drone spying.
“An Act relating to the use of an unmanned aircraft system” specifically precludes UAV’s from being used by the authorities under the jurisdiction of Iowa, but does not address any such privacy violation’s perpetrated by the federal government. This Bill was referred to the Judiciary Committee on Feb. 27.
Key areas:
” 1. A state agency or an agency of a political subdivision of the state having jurisdiction over criminal law enforcement shall not utilize an unmanned aircraft system prior to July 1, 2015.”
“3. Under no circumstances shall a weaponized unmanned aircraft system be deployed by or its use facilitated by an agency of the state or an agency of…..”
SF 276 does allow the use of UAV’s for limited purposes:
“(a) During the occurrence of a disaster as defined in section 29C.2. (b) When an amber alert has been issued. (c) During a search and rescue operation if deployment is necessary to protect life, health, or property..”
During a brief conversation regarding SF 276, Senator Sorenson indicated he was currently working on another Bill that would address the operation of UAV’s by the feds, as well as the State. The new Bill should be “introduced in the near future”. Given the current makeup of the Iowa Legislature, Senator Sorenson realizes he has an arduous uphill climb.
The United States Federal Government [ Republicans and Democrats ], through the Patriot Act and National Defense Authorization Act, have unleashed the ‘hounds of hell‘ on the American people. Our last hope rests in the legislature of the 50 States. If they fail, we will all become the ‘hawk eye‘ nation – [think global hawk/predator/etc]
ACTION ITEMS
Step 1: Drink a toast to these intrepid legislator’s.
Step 2: Put down the glass, get off your gluteus maximus, and reach out to these Senators with your support. You can find find their contact information by clicking here.
LEGISLATION AND TRACKING
If you’re outside of Iowa, please contact your own legislators regarding anti-drone legislation. If none has been introduced in your state, you can email them The Privacy Protection Act model legislation.
Track the status of drone nullification in states around the country HERE
