DJI’s lobbying record: a decade of federal disclosures as the FCC blocks new drone models

By Owen Castellane

WASHINGTON — DJI Technology Inc., the U.S. arm of the Chinese drone maker, reported $240,000 in in-house federal lobbying expenses for the third quarter of 2026, and two outside firms reported a further $197,500 in income from the company, according to disclosures filed with Congress this month. The filings show the company still pressing lawmakers on the Federal Communications Commission’s Covered List, the national security list that since December has blocked new DJI drone models from receiving the FCC equipment authorization needed to be sold in the United States.

The FCC’s action came on Dec. 22, 2025, when its Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau added uncrewed aircraft systems and critical components produced abroad, along with the communications and video surveillance equipment named in Section 1709 of the fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, to the Covered List. The bureau said it acted on a National Security Determination from a White House-convened interagency body, which found such equipment poses “an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States or the security and safety of United States persons.” Previously authorized models were not affected, Reuters reported.

A second FCC rule took effect Oct. 13. The commission’s Third Report and Order (91 FR 57798) bars authorization of devices that incorporate “logic-bearing hardware components” made by an entity on the Covered List, when the device would itself be barred had that entity made it. The FCC described the change as closing “a component-part loophole.”

DJI has challenged the December action in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, where its petition for review, SZ DJI Technology Co. v. FCC, No. 26-1029, was docketed in February, Reuters reported.

The Washington Inquisitor reviewed every lobbying registration and quarterly report filed under the Lobbying Disclosure Act that lists DJI as a client, 185 documents dating to 2016, using the Senate and House LDA database. Where a report was amended, the latest version was used.

How to read the numbers

DJI registered to lobby on its own behalf in 2016 and files quarterly reports of its in-house lobbying expenses. It has also retained a changing roster of outside firms, each of which reports the income it receives from DJI. Under LDA guidance, an organization that lobbies in-house generally includes payments to outside lobbying firms in its own expense total, so the two columns below overlap and should not be added together. Registrants may report amounts under $5,000 without a figure; those reports are counted as zero in the annual totals.

DJI’s in-house figure peaked in 2025 at $2.2 million, the year the FCC added foreign-made drones to the Covered List. Over the decade, DJI’s in-house reports total $11.87 million. The 2026 pace is lower: $580,000 through September, compared with $1.56 million over the same nine months of 2025.

The quarterly record since the start of 2025 shows the shift. DJI’s in-house spending fell from $640,000 in the fourth quarter of 2025, the quarter the FCC acted, to $200,000 in the first quarter of 2026 and $140,000 in the second, before rising to $240,000 in the third.

The third quarter

DJI’s own third-quarter report lists $240,000 in expenses, down from $650,000 in the same quarter of 2025. Its lone listed in-house lobbyist was Timothy Ranstrom, who contacted the House and Senate on “issues related to FCC covered list”; the use of drones in public safety, law enforcement and agriculture; the House and Senate versions of the fiscal 2027 defense authorization bill, H.R. 8800 and S. 4784; and H.R. 9430, the American Drone Manufacturing Dominance Act of 2026. That bill, introduced in June by Rep. Pat Harrigan, R-N.C., would tie certain law enforcement grants to agencies not buying drones from specified foreign countries.

A year earlier, DJI’s report listed three in-house lobbyists, Ranstrom, Adam Welsh and Catherine Ramsey, and contacts with the Defense Department and the Office of the Vice President in addition to Congress. That report cited the fiscal 2026 defense authorization bill and a continuing resolution, H.R. 5371, on “issues related to Analysis of Certain Unmanned Aircraft Systems Entities,” and listed trade and customs rules for drone supply chains as a separate issue. The third-quarter 2026 report does not list the Defense Department, the vice president’s office or trade issues.

CLS Strategies, a Washington public affairs firm, has been DJI’s longest-serving current outside firm. Its third-quarter report, filed Oct. 26, lists $170,000 in income, up from $90,000 in the second quarter. CLS has reported $2.53 million from DJI since it registered for the company in September 2020, more than any other outside firm in the record.

Liberty Government Affairs lists Brian Darling, whose disclosed prior covered position is counsel and senior communications director for Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. Its report shows $27,500 for the quarter, after the firm reported less than $5,000 for each of the first two quarters of 2026.

Who has worked for DJI

Fourteen registrants, counting DJI itself, have reported lobbying for the company. The first outside firm, K&L Gates, reported income from DJI from 2016 through 2020. Squire Patton Boggs and the Vogel Group first reported income from DJI in 2022. The Commerce Department had added DJI to its Entity List of export-restricted companies in December 2020 (85 FR 83416).

Two firms ended their engagements this year. MO Strategies, which registered for DJI in October 2025 to “facilitate discussions on border security and technology” with the Department of Homeland Security and the Senate, filed a termination report for the second quarter of 2026. Its listed lobbyists were Martin Obst and Robert Goad, whose disclosed prior covered position is special assistant to the president. Porter Wright Morris & Arthur filed a termination report for the first quarter, listing $10,000. Sidley Austin terminated its registration in the third quarter of 2025.

What comes next

The fiscal 2027 defense authorization bills that DJI listed in its report are pending in Congress. In the Ninth Circuit, the government told the court this month that DJI’s appeal is premature, Communications Daily reported.

The Washington Inquisitor is seeking comment from DJI, CLS Strategies, Liberty Government Affairs, the FCC and Rep. Harrigan’s office.