Congress: Pass the Drone Infrastructure Inspection Grant Act

Dear Leader Schumer, Speaker Pelosi, Leader McConnell, and Leader McCarthy:

Texas’ Big City Mayors, a bipartisan coalition of mayors from our state’s most populous cities, express our support for H.R. 5315, the Drone Infrastructure Inspection Grant (DIIG) Act.  Introduced by Representatives Greg Stanton (D-AZ) and Garrett Graves (R-LA), the DIIG Act would create a grant program to increase the use of American drones for critical infrastructure inspections and provide funding for training to utilize the technology. 

Compared to traditional methods, increasing the use of American-made drones would allow for a safer, more cost effective, and more efficient inspection process of our aging infrastructure.

Embracing drone technology can improve worker safety by performing hazardous inspections, reduce carbon emissions with electric drones, and provide greater efficiencies and reduced costs by saving man hours while increasing the ability to track changes and damage over time. The DIIG Act would also invest in workforce training to help prepare our current and future employees with the skills needed to properly operate drones. 

As we navigate through America’s infrastructure challenges, this bill will help capitalize on existing state investments while enabling Texas to grow our inspection programs strategically in ways that benefit all our constituents. 

We respectfully ask for your support of the DIIG Act and look forward to working with you to advance this important piece of legislation.