Review - S 1249 Introduced – UAS Zoning Authority

Last month, Sen Lee (R,UT) introduced S 1249, 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 116th Congress. No action was taken on either bill.

This bill is very similar to S 905 that was introduced by Lee in March 2023. No action was taken on that bill in the 118^th Congress. There were two changes made in S 1249. First the definition of the term ‘Indian tribe’ was changed to being made by reference to 25 USC 5304; not a material change. The second change was a deletion of a change to 49 USC 44805(j) that would have required DOT to “exempt from the requirements of this section small unmanned aircraft systems that are not capable of navigating beyond the visual line of sight of the operator through advanced flight systems and technology”, instead of simply authorizing such a change to be made.

Moving Forward

Lee is not a member of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee to which this bill was referred for consideration. This means that there will not be sufficient influence to see the bill considered in Committee. There is still considerable resistance in Congress to modifying the rules considering the legal oversight of drone operations. Legislators are still trying to figure out how to separate UAS regulation from air space regulation. Bills like this help to drive that discussion.

 

For more details about the provisions of this lengthy bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-1249-introduced-uas-zoning-authority - subscription required.