Prominent members of the drone business will testify at a listening to held by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation subsequent week titled “Unmanned Aircraft Systems: Innovation, Integration, Successes, and Challenges.” “The hearing will examine public policy issues related to the safe integration of unmanned aircraft systems in the national airspace system,” says the Committee announcement. “It will explore practical applications for this emerging technology, as well as developing economic, privacy, and safety implications.”
Witnesses on the listening to will embody Diana Marina Cooper, VP of Legal and Policy Affairs at Precision Hawk USA; and Brendan Schulman, VP of Policy and Legal Affairs at drone producer DJI. PrecisionHawk and DJI have each been main advocates for the drone business, taking part with the FAA in committees and job forces to develop cheap drone rules. Representatives from the FAA, UCLA, the Miami-Dade Aviation Department and Xcel Energy will even act as witnesses.
The Senate Committee has actively debated over drone rules as a part of final 12 months’s FAA Reauthorization debate, when committee members argued over drone privateness, BVLOS flight, drone supply, and a micro drone classification. The model that finally handed out of the committee referred to as for a number of provisions instantly associated to drone regulation. Committee members have been sharply important of the FAA, with Senator Maria Cantwell from Washington saying that it was obligatory to pressure an inexpensive timeframe for a regulatory framework. “We are inhibiting innovation… because we do not push the FAA to move fast enough,” Cantwell commented throughout these discussions.
The introduced speaker listing is a welcome signal for the drone business, largely excluded from final 12 months’s Senate Subcommittee of Transportation, Housing & Urban Development’s listening to titled “Integrating Unmanned Aircraft Systems Technology into the National Airspace System,” the place the tone of the assembly was closely involved with privateness and issues of safety however didn’t focus on innovation and business potential.