House Bill Goals to Extend and Enhance Authorities of DHS, DOJ, and FAA to Address Growing Drone Threats
By DRONELIFE Features Editor Jim Magill
A bill introduced within the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this month would extend the authority of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to mitigate threats from errant unmanned aerial systems, while also granting the FAA some additional counter-UAS power.
The Counter-UAS Authority Security, Safety, and Reauthorization Act, introduced within the House Homeland Security Committee, replaces the Stopping Emerging Threats Act of 2018, which was slated to run out in September. The bipartisan laws marks essentially the most significant effort that Congress has yet undertaken to counter the growing threats posed by drones operated in an unsafe or malicious manner near airports and other critical infrastructure, or densely crowded venues akin to football stadiums.
“As drones have continued to proliferate there’s been an increased appetite for people to amass and operate counter-UAS systems,” a congressional staffer conversant in the proposed laws said.
Within the last session of Congress, the Biden administration released a National Motion Plan for counter-UAS measures, which proposed a dramatic expansion of counter-UAS authorities across the federal government. Nonetheless, Congress balked at passing the Biden plan and as a substitute quite a lot of lawmakers have been working on coming up with a less far-reaching plan to deal with the problems of counter-UAS mitigation, without impeding the hoped-for expansion of drone traffic into the U.S. airspace system.
The proposed laws is the work of several House committee, working cooperatively with each other.
“Counter UAS is certainly one of those issues that crosses committee jurisdictions within the House. The Transportation Committee obviously deals with drone integration and airspace and the FAA,” the congressional aide said. “The Committee on Homeland Security deals with DHS and the Committee on the Judiciary deals with the Department of Justice.
The Counter-UAS bill would extend existing DHS and DOJ counter-UAS authorities through October 1, 2028. In accordance with an announcement by Republican members of the House Homeland Security Committee, amongst other measures, the laws will:
- Make clear and improve coordination requirements amongst DHS, DOJ, the Department of Transportation (DOT), and the FAA.
- Make sure that information gathered by approved counter-UAS systems will not be misused or retained for prolonged periods of time.
- Prohibit DHS and DOJ from using or authorizing using counter-UAS systems which were manufactured by certain foreign (notably Chinese) firms.
- Provide Homeland Security Investigations, the principal investigative component of DHS, with counter-UAS authority; and supply DHS with counter-UAS authority to guard public airports.
- Allow DHS to authorize the acquisition, deployment, and operation of counter-UAS systems by owners or operators of covered sites and demanding infrastructure.
- Require DHS to ascertain a counter-UAS mitigation pilot program, designating five pilot sites under which chosen state law enforcement agencies may operate approved counter-UAS mitigation systems.
- Require the FAA, in coordination with DHS and DOJ, to develop a plan for counter-UAS operations at airports.
Under current law under certain conditions, the DHS has the authority to interdict and convey down drones which can be operating in an unsafe manner. The proposed laws extends that power to the FAA under limited circumstances. In accordance with the bill, the FAA administrator may take actions to “detect or mitigate a reputable threat” to the secure and efficient operation of the national airspace system.
The FAA can be charged with evaluating the potential antagonistic impacts of counter-UAS detection or mitigation systems “with secure airport operations, aircraft navigation, air traffic services, or the secure and efficient operation of the national airspace system,” based on the bill.
“On the whole, the bill tries to allow us to wrap our arms around the prevailing authorities to be sure that they’re being managed and used properly, after which it turns to take a look at how can we roll out UAS-detection technologies,” the staffer said.
Waiver to intercept signals
One problem in implementing existing counter-UAS technology is that its use involves the interception of radio signals, a possible crime. The Counter-UAS bill incorporates a waiver that permits state and native law enforcement agencies, in partnership with critical infrastructure facility and stadium owners, to enter into agreements to operate UAS-detection systems without running afoul of laws akin to the federal Wiretap Act.
One other major concern involving using counter-UAS systems is ensuring the privacy of the information collected by those systems. The implementation of the FAA’s Distant ID system for drones is anticipated to assist propel counter-UAS efforts, by providing much of the information sought by the operators of those systems – akin to the identity of the aircraft’s operator, its registration number and the direction during which it’s flying.
Under the bill’s stringent data-retention provisions, data collected on drone operations by counter-UAS systems is required to be erased after a certain time period, unless it’s getting used in the continuing prosecution of a criminal offense.
Under a pilot program, to check the expansion of counter-UAS authority to state and native jurisdictions, state law enforcement agencies will apply for certain locations to be chosen as certainly one of five test sites. These sites will typically be those who previously have qualified for FAA temporary flight restrictions, akin to NFL football stadiums.
With the successful operation of the initial test sites, the pilot program is anticipated to be expanded to additional sites, the congressional staffer said.
Like other drone-related laws currently pending before Congress, the bill is targeted to exclude the introduction of Chinese technology, even though it doesn’t mention China specifically. The laws is written to ban “the inclusion of counter-UAS systems manufactured by certain foreign enterprises,” and goes on to explain those enterprises to let everyone know what country the availability is geared toward.
While the laws has an extended technique to go before becoming law – it have to be passed by each Houses of Congress and signed by the President – proponents are hopeful that it’s going to be enacted … eventually.
“I feel something like this may pass,” the congressional staffer said. “Whether it’s on this congress, I don’t know. But that is an area where a whole lot of folks have been working on a whole lot of proposals for a very long time. And so, sooner or later, everyone will coalesce around some version.”
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