Government Moves to Provide Safer Skies Above World Cup Events
In an article published by Drone Life, Woods Rogers Principal Carter Lee is featured in a discussion on efforts to establish new counter-UAS protocols ahead of high-profile events scheduled for this summer. Congress recently passed The Safer Skies Act, part of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2026, which gives state, local, trial, and territorial law enforcement agencies the authority to detect – and in some instances, bring down – UAS that pose a credible threat.
In addition to this federal legislation, the National Capital Region (VA, DC, and MD) and states hosting upcoming World Cup events have received $250,000,000 in funds from FEMA’s counter UAS grant program to expand drone detection and response capacity. Carter told Drone Life in an interview that recipients of this grant money – one of the fastest deployments of non-disaster grant funds in FEMA’s history – will have the authority to distribute those funds to subrecipients, such as public safety organizations, while up to 20% of the funds can go to state-level law enforcement.
“You look at these grants and the Safer Skies Act in tandem,” Carter notes. “The Safer Skies Act gave expanded authority to state, local, and trial government law enforcement specifically to conduct counter-UAS activities.
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