Review - HR 3459 Introduced – Increasing Drone Competitiveness

Last month, Rep Yakym (R,IN) introduced HR 3459, the Increasing Competitiveness for American Drones Act of 2023. The bill would address issues related to the operations of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), including operations beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS), UAS integration, UAS certification, UAS test ranges, and the extension of authority to approve UAS operations that do not fall within the scope of 14 CFR Part 107 - Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems. No new funding is authorized by this legislation.

Moving Forward

Yakym and one of his two cosponsors {Rep Menendez (D,NJ)} are member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there may be sufficient influence to see this bill considered in Committee. I do not see anything that would engender organized opposition. I suspect that the bill would receive some level of bipartisan support were it considered, but it remains to be seen if there is enough support to see the bill considered by the full House under the suspension of the rules process. Otherwise, this bill is almost certainly not important enough to be considered under a rule.

Commentary

As part of the responsibility to “ensure and oversee the safe integration of UASs into the national airspace system”, the new Associate Administrator is going to have to active in meeting the rule making requirements of §2209 of the FAA Extension, Safety, and Security Act of 2016 (PL 114-190) to establish a process for critical infrastructure facilities to request to be declared ‘no fly zones’ for UAS operations and for supporting counter UAS activities under the supervision of DHS and DOJ at such facilities. That should be clarified by inserting a new §106(U)(3)(B):

“(B) coordinate with the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department to support safe counter-UAS operations at critical infrastructure facilities approved under §2209 of Public Law 114-190 for restriction of operations of UAS;”

 

For more details about the provisions of this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-3459-introduced - subscription.