Nassau Standard

Bipartisan Legislation seen as critical to support domestic drone manufacturers

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Anthony D’Esposito (NY-04) and Congressman Greg Stanton (AZ-04) have introduced bipartisan legislation to streamline the certification process for new drone models being designed and produced in the United States.  The legislation, titled “Streamlining UAS Environmental Assessment Reviews,” calls for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) – the agency with regulatory authority over drone production – to conduct environmental reviews of new drones in tandem with all other major steps of the certification process.  This change would prevent new drone models from reaching the end of a lengthy certification process only to then fail an environmental review.  This legislation will allow drone developers to make the necessary changes to the design of a drone throughout an approval process while accounting for environmental review considerations. This change prevents American manufacturers from wasting months and even years developing drone models that will ultimately not receive certification.

D'Esposito and Stanton’s “Streamlining UAS Environmental Assessment Reviews” has been included as part of the 2023 FAA Reauthorization Plan, outlined in H.R. 3935 – signaling a major legislative victory for the bipartisan push to streamline the drone certification process.  The inclusion of the bipartisan proposal in the FAA Reauthorization plan is slated to provide American drone manufacturers the tools needed to compete with Chinese drone manufacturers who currently dominate the international drone market.  What’s more, the United States’ current reliance on Chinese drone manufacturers poses sweeping security risks for the many law enforcement and other first responder agencies who utilize drones as part of sensitive investigations or emergency response operations.  The forecasted increase in American made drones tied to passage of the “Streamlining UAS Environmental Assessment Reviews” will provide domestic first responder agencies with a wider availability of American made drones and reduce reliance on Chinese manufactured drones.

“This is common sense legislation that will enable American drone manufacturers to develop and produce new models of these all-important aircraft, and ensure domestic manufacturers are able to compete with foreign counterparts such as the Chinese more successfully.  What’s more, increasing the availability of American made drones will help alleviate ongoing national security concerns stemming from American first responder agencies that are currently forced to rely on Chinese manufactured drones due to the dearth of American made drones on the market. The drone industry is quickly growing and presents an excellent opportunity to create good-paying, American based manufacturing jobs.  It is incumbent upon the federal government to support the drone industry in this endeavor, and my bipartisan legislation will do just that,” said D’Esposito.

Original source can be found here.