Committee hears bill increasing penalties for drones that interfere with emergency response and wildfire suppression

The House Committee on Rules held a public hearing June 11 on Senate Bill 1125A, which would increase criminal penalties for using an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) to interfere with law enforcement, firefighting, search and rescue or other emergency response operations, and would create new misdemeanor and felony offenses for conduct that causes interference and serious harm.

The A‑2 amendment reconciles draft language with companion House Bill 3426A and broadens protections to include search and rescue and all firefighting efforts. Under the consolidated language the measure creates a class B misdemeanor for recklessly causing UAS interference, a class C felony for intentionally or knowingly causing interference that disrupts public‑safety operations, and elevates penalties to a class A felony where death or serious physical injury results from the interference. The amendment removed a separate class B felony for causing property damage and refined other offense elements.

Representative Boice (Boyce in transcript) and Senator Pruzanski (appearing) and supporters told the committee the measure is meant to protect first responders and pilots whose operations can be disabled by drones, citing incidents in which firefighting aircraft were struck and response helicopters could not land. Representative Boyce recounted an incident in which a drone struck a firefighting plane, creating a four‑by‑six inch hole and requiring a safe landing.

Committee members reserved further deliberation and the chair carried the bill over to allow Senator Pruzanski and other witnesses to be present at a later hearing; the committee preserved witness registration and written testimony for an afternoon session.