To direct the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration to publish guidance and implementation procedures for unmanned aircraft systems with respect to environmental reviews, and for other purposes.
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Aviation Subcommittee
Introduced
In Committee
On Floor
Passed Chamber
Enacted
This bill directs the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to publish guidance and implementation procedures for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), also known as drones, that specifically address environmental assessments and reviews. For instance, the FAA guidance and implementation procedures must provide guidance for nationwide programmatic approaches for large-scale distributed UAS operations to leverage environmental assessments or environmental impact statements for subsequent related actions, contain intra-agency process improvements to avoid providing conflicting safety and environmental feedback to operators, and prioritize proposed projects or activities that can be shown to contain specific factors that benefit the environment (e.g., offsets or limits the impacts of non-zero emission activities). The bill also directs the FAA, to the maximum extent practicable, to concurrently conduct reviews and analyses for an environmental assessment required as part of the review of a UAS's design, construction, maintenance and operational sustainability, airworthiness approval, or operational approval. Further, the FAA must develop and establish substantive criteria and standards metrics to determine the airworthiness of an unmanned aircraft based on specific noise standards.
Administrative law and regulatory proceduresAviation and airportsCongressional oversightDepartment of TransportationEnvironmental assessment, monitoring, researchTransportation safety and security
To direct the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration to publish guidance and implementation procedures for unmanned aircraft systems with respect to environmental reviews, and for other purposes.
USA118th CongressHR-3958| House
| Updated: 6/12/2023
This bill directs the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to publish guidance and implementation procedures for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), also known as drones, that specifically address environmental assessments and reviews. For instance, the FAA guidance and implementation procedures must provide guidance for nationwide programmatic approaches for large-scale distributed UAS operations to leverage environmental assessments or environmental impact statements for subsequent related actions, contain intra-agency process improvements to avoid providing conflicting safety and environmental feedback to operators, and prioritize proposed projects or activities that can be shown to contain specific factors that benefit the environment (e.g., offsets or limits the impacts of non-zero emission activities). The bill also directs the FAA, to the maximum extent practicable, to concurrently conduct reviews and analyses for an environmental assessment required as part of the review of a UAS's design, construction, maintenance and operational sustainability, airworthiness approval, or operational approval. Further, the FAA must develop and establish substantive criteria and standards metrics to determine the airworthiness of an unmanned aircraft based on specific noise standards.
Administrative law and regulatory proceduresAviation and airportsCongressional oversightDepartment of TransportationEnvironmental assessment, monitoring, researchTransportation safety and security