Review – S 905 Introduced – Drone Zoning

Last month, Sen Lee (R,UT) introduced S 905, the Drone Integration and Zoning Act. The bill would provide for State and local government authority over ‘civil unmanned aircraft systems’ within 200-ft above the ground. Currently, sole jurisdiction over US airspace rest with the Federal Aviation Administration. This bill is very similar to S 600 introduced last session, and S 2607 which Lee introduced in the 116^th Congress. No action was taken on either bill.

Moving Forward

Lee is not a member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that Lee no longer has the influence to see the bill considered in Committee. Of course, when he did have the potential influence in the last session, the bill was not considered. This is almost certainly due to the fairly radical change that this bill makes with respect to the regulation of the national airspace, designating areas over which the FAA does not have regulatory authority over aircraft operations.

 

For more details about the provisions of this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-905-introduced - subscription required.