In December of 2025, the CEOs of three construction firms—Hensel Phelps, Brasfield & Gorrie and Bechtel—received a message that didn’t exactly feel like a warm holiday greeting: a demand from two members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to document their companies’ use of Chinese-made drones over the past five years. The U.S. government has banned federal agencies and contractors from using drones manufactured in China due to national security concerns, but the letter spelled out that the government was worried “about the extent to which construction contractors may be using prohibited drones on government contracts, as well as the extent to which data gathered by approved drones may be stored on vulnerable computer networks.” While those leaders felt the biggest pressures, it’s safe to say the rest of the industry was watching. A survey conducted by Associated Builders and Contractors shows that 36% of contractors are…
In December of 2025, the CEOs of three construction firms—Hensel Phelps, Brasfield & Gorrie and Bechtel—received a message that didn’t exactly feel like a warm holiday greeting: a demand from two members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to document their companies’ use of Chinese-made drones over the past five years. The U.S. government has banned federal agencies and contractors from using drones manufactured in China due to national security concerns, but the letter spelled out that the government was worried “about the extent to which construction contractors may be using prohibited drones on government contracts, as well as the extent to which data gathered by approved drones may be stored on vulnerable computer networks.” While those leaders felt the biggest pressures, it’s safe to say the rest of the industry was watching. A survey conducted by Associated Builders and Contractors shows that 36% of contractors are…
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