The US House of Representatives has added to Washington’s flurry of legislative initiatives in recent months surrounding future airline, drone, next-generation aircraft, and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) activity, with a new committee proposal that – among many, many other things – sets deadlines for creating new rules on beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations by UAVs.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and aviation subcommittee introduced the sprawling Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act on Friday. Its 773 pages and pledge to provide $100 billion in funding over the next half decade as part of the FAA’s reauthorization are certainly eye-catchers. Much of that spending would target airport improvements, increasing the efficiency of passenger and cargo flights, preparing the launch of air taxi and other advanced air mobility services, and facilitating drone BVLOS flights.
Read: GAO’s report on FAA drone integration strategy: You can do better
It also proposes that most Washingtonian of miracles of making the regulator more effective and efficient through streamlining (AKA cuts), and reducing “FAA waste, inefficiency, and unnecessary responsibilities.”
“For over a century, the United States has led the world in aviation safety and innovation, but our ‘Gold Standard’ status is being threatened by increasing global competition, rapid developments in technology, a shortage of aviation professionals, and FAA’s own inefficiency,” said committee chairman Sam Graves (R-Mo.) in a statement on the enormous plan.
As part of its suggested revisions, the bill sets a deadline for the FAA to initiate new rule and certification procedures for BVLOS drone flights. Yet in doing so, it echoes previous third-party and Congressional urgings on those changes – thus far not acted upon – which are viewed as critical for unleashing the UAV sector’s full potential.
“Not later than 4 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration shall issue a notice of proposed rulemaking establishing airworthiness and operational regulations for (uncrewed) aircraft systems operated beyond visual line of sight that are intended to operate primarily at or below 400 feet above ground level,” subsection 609 on BVLOS drone flight notes.
Read more: New Senate bill aims to boost FAA BVLOS drone flight approvals
So what’s that likely to change following the bill’s unveiling? Not much – at least not soon, if history is any guide.
The House committee recommendations do have the virtue of being bipartisan, and owes their timing to the nearing September 30 deadline for FAA reauthorization. But they come in the wake of numerous legislative initiatives out of Congress over the past year that that have thus far gone virtually nowhere – including existing BVLOS drone liberalization proposals.
Indeed, another “new” bill that surfaced in the Senate on the very same day as the House package promised $100 million for drone infrastructure inspections – and represented an identical clone of one introduced in the same chamber way back in August. That hasn’t moved, apart from cropping up in rehashed form.
Read more: Senate drone infrastructure inspection bill introduced by bipartisan backers
In addition to that legislative gesticulating, Friday also featured the tabling of yet another iteration of what’s become the favorite, exhaustingly repetitive performative Washington Tik-Tok dance, the “Let’s Ban DJI Drones Twerk.” Thankfully, none of those largely protectionism-fueled draft laws have yet to be passed, though federal agencies – and an increasing number of states – have imposed blacklists of their own.
Amid public unhappiness (to put it mildly) over the spate of malfunctions that created massive air travel snarls over the past year, DC politicians may be moved to pass the Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act to address passenger anger. Its proposed reform of the FAA – including requiring new measures for BVLOS drone and air taxi operation – may well wind up being part of the nearing reauthorization vote.
But coming as it does just days after the US flirted with bankruptcy during a debt ceiling standoff ultimately resolved through spending cut agreements, it’s hard to imagine how the new bill will take wing when so many aviation- and drone-related texts have immediately vanished once they’d been (sometimes repeatedly) announced.
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