UAS Face a Gauntlet of Legislation

In 2012 eleven bills and amendments were introduced into the US Congress addressing in some fashion the privacy and civil liberties issues raised by the advent of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in the civil environment, and most of these are expected to be reintroduced into the 113th Congress when federal legislators reconvene in January 2013.

At the recent Technical Analysis and Applications Center (TAAC) Conference in Albuquerque, NM Ben Gielow, AUVSI’s government relations manager and general counsel, summarized the bills and amendments that have been introduced in Congress since the FAA Modernization and Reform Act was signed into law in February. Most of the legislative proposals address the use of unmanned aircraft by government entities for surveillance purposes but all limit the use of UAS to some extent.

The federal initiatives are joined by a growing number of states considering their own legislation to address the privacy and civil liberties issues within the states’ borders. Bills have already been introduced into the senates of both California and Florida, and in the Commonwealth of Virginia a state level coalition including a Tea Party member of the state’s general assembly and the American Civil Liberties Union is crafting what could be the nation’s strictest domestic UAS legislation.

Advocates for the use of UAS in the national airspace are forming alliances and organizing to counter the trend toward legislative restrictions; however, their efforts are being challenged by more than 20 years of attention given to the military use of unmanned aircraft and the development of weaponized ‘drones’ to identify, track and eliminate enemy combatants. 2013 may well be a pivotal year for UAS and efforts to dissuade legislative action may be too little too late as public sentiment against the use of unmanned aircraft by law enforcement agencies grows with each exploitive media headline proclaiming, “The Drones are Coming!!”.

Click the link below to read the recent article by Frank Cerabino, columnist for the Palm Beach Post
Coming to a backyard near you; unmanned drone aircraft may take ‘peek-a-boo’ to a new level

Rich Hanson
AMA Government and Regulatory Affairs