FAA Sends Two UAS Rules to OMB

Yesterday the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had received two rulemakings from DOT’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for review. Both rulemakings addressed operations of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). The two rulemakings were (links are to the announcements):

• Operations of Small Unmanned Aircraft Over People – Notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM); and

• Safe and Secure Operations of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems – Advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM)

Over People

According to the Fall 2017 Unified Agenda entry for this rulemaking:

“This rulemaking would address the performance-based standards and means-of-compliance for operation of small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) over people not directly participating in the operation or not under a covered structure or inside a stationary vehicle that can provide reasonable protection from a falling small unmanned aircraft. This rule would provide relief from certain operational restrictions implemented in the Operation and Certification of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems final rule (RIN 2120-AJ60) [link added].”

Safe and Secure Operations

According to the Fall 2017 Unified Agenda entry for this rulemaking:

“This action would solicit public comments for several operational limitations, airspace restrictions, hardware requirements, and associated identification or tracking technologies for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). The ANPRM will ask a series of questions regarding the balance of needs between UAS operators and the law enforcement and national defense communities. This action is necessary to address safety and security concerns from the homeland security, Federal law enforcement, and national defense communities.”

FAA Sends UAS Registration Rule to OMB

Tuesday the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had received a proposed interim final rule (IFR) from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) concerning UAS Registration. This is almost certainly the rule that has been under public discussion for the last month or so.

The FAA is probably using the December 31^st, 2015 deadline to “develop and implement operational and certification requirements for the operation of public unmanned aircraft systems in the national airspace system” found in §334(b) of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 (PL 112-95).

Unfortunately, if the published work of the ‘Drone Task Force’ is any indication of the contents and intent of this IFR, then the FAA is completely disregarding the provisions of §336 of the same bill which specifically states that the FAA may not “promulgate any rule or regulation regarding a model aircraft, or an aircraft being developed as a model aircraft”. A key component of the definition of ‘model aircraft’ is that it includes UAS that are “flown for hobby or recreational purposes” {§336(c)(3)}.

It will be interesting to see how long OIRA sits on this rulemaking.

BTW: Readers of this blog will notice that this post comes a day later than normal. I try to make these posts the day after the regulation is submitted to OIRA. Unfortunately, OIRA is no longer able to get these posted to its web site by the next morning. I know that it is the holiday season so that may explain why it takes an additional day to get two rulemakings posted to their site.