As Drone Flies Through Congressional Hearing, FAA Refuses To Give Date For Rule

(Source: blogs.rollcall.com)  

House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chairman Lamar Smith tried hard at a hearing Wednesday to get the Federal Aviation Administration to say when it will issue its rule on commercial use of unmanned aerial vehicle.

But James Williams, the FAA official in charge of integrating UAVs into the nation’s airspace, repeatedly refused to commit to a date.

“Mr. Williams, when might we expect the FAA to propose some rules?” Smith asked at a hearing of the committee on the UAV industry.

Williams said the FAA is working with its partners in the Obama administration, such as the Office of Management and Budget, and the agency is “doing everything we can to get that small unmanned aircraft rule out, but our main focus is to get it right.”

“When do you think you might get that [rule] out?” Smith asked.

“I at this point can’t give you a firm deadline,” Williams replied.

“Do you have a goal in mind? I mean, you’ve got a lot of people across the United States waiting,” Smith said. “Do you have any kind of a working deadline or a working goal?”

“Our goals are to get it out as quickly as we can, as long as we get it out right,” Williams answered, which prompted Smith to ask whether a rule is likely to come “this year or next year?”

“I can’t speculate,” Williams said. “My own personal hope is we get it out as soon as possible, but it’s got to go through the regulatory process that has been put in place by Congress and we’re working our way through that.”

He added, “You’ve got to understand this is a very complex rulemaking.”

Smith tried one more time, but then gave up: “Never mind. I can tell that I’m not going to get the answer that I was hoping for. But we’ll take your word for expediting the process….”

Another witness at the hearing, Brian Wynne, head of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), the trade association for drone makers and users, said that “we understand that a notice of proposed rule-making (NPRM) for small UAS [unmanned aerial systems] from the FAA is now expected any day. It cannot come soon enough.”

Michael Drobac, the head of the Small UAV Coalition, said Tuesday that it would be a 16-month process for comments, reply comments and a final rule once the NPRM is released and noted that the NPRM “was supposed to be released months and months ago.”

He said FAA’s final rule on commercial use of drones won’t come until 2016 or 2017.

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