The Countering CCP Drones Act, which would have banned DJI outright, passed the House but was dropped from the Senate’s version of the 2025 NDAA. Instead of an outright ban, the final law required a federal security review of DJI by December 23, 2025, with automatic addition to the FCC’s Covered List if no agency completed it. That review wasn’t finished, and DJI was added to the list in December 2025.
Did Congress actually vote to ban DJI?
Not directly. The House included the Countering CCP Drones Act — a bill that would have banned DJI outright — in its version of the FY2025 National Defense Authorization Act. The Senate Armed Services Committee’s version did not include it, a significant step back from the House’s position.
What happened to the bill in the Senate?
It was dropped. In a procedural vote in mid-December 2024, senators voted 83-12 to move to a full vote on the NDAA. But the Senate draft that emerged did not carry the outright DJI ban provision the House had passed.
So how did DJI end up restricted anyway?
The final NDAA replaced the direct ban with a review-trigger mechanism. A U.S. national security agency had until December 23, 2025 to complete a formal security audit of DJI. If no agency finished that review by the deadline, the law required DJI to be automatically added to the FCC’s Covered List, which blocks new equipment from getting US market authorization.
No agency completed the audit in time, and the FCC added DJI to the Covered List in December 2025. Rather than a straightforward legislative ban, the outcome came from a procedural deadline nobody met.
Why build in a deadline instead of just voting on it?
The review-trigger approach let Congress act on national security concerns about DJI without a direct vote on banning a specific foreign company’s products. It’s a structure that avoided the harder political and trade fight a straight ban would have invited, while still producing a real restriction once the review deadline passed unmet.
For what this means for current and prospective DJI owners, see our full breakdown of the DJI ban’s practical effects.
Sources: Commercial UAV News, Tom’s Hardware.
