Bills Introduced – 2-7-24

Yesterday, with both the House and Senate in session (and the House preparing for a long weekend), there were 70 bills introduced. One of those bills will receive additional coverage in this blog:

S 3758 A bill to address security vulnerabilities with respect to unmanned aircraft systems used by civilian Federal agencies, and for other purposes. Warner, Mark R. [Sen.-D-VA] 

Mentioned in Passing

There was an additional bill dealing with uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) that I thought that I would mention, but is not really within the scope of this blog:

S 3752 A bill to prohibit requiring a pilot of an unmanned aircraft to hold a medical certificate as a condition for piloting such aircraft, and for other purposes. Cruz, Ted [Sen.-R-TX]

While we expect (and require for larger drones certified by the FAA) that drone will be programmed for a safe mode in the event of failure of communications with the operator, it would seem to me that we, as a society, have a responsibility to ensure that operators who operate those UAS are not the proximate cause of that failure of communications. I would suggest that a medical certificate for a UAS operator need not be as comprehensive as one for a conventional pilot, that there should be some sort of medical baseline for that operation.