Today, we submitted a comment regarding the Federal Aviation Administration's proposed rule titled “Designation—Restrict the Operation of Unmanned Aircraft in Close Proximity to a Fixed Site Facility,” which proposes modifications to the rule’s framework for unmanned aircraft flight restrictions.
Executive Summary
The Federal Aviation Administration's proposed rule titled “Designation—Restrict the Operation of Unmanned Aircraft in Close Proximity to a Fixed Site Facility” proposes modifications to the rule’s framework for unmanned aircraft flight restrictions (UAFRs), a system for managing drone operations near fixed site facilities. My name is Joshua Levine, I am the director for technology & statecraft at the Foundation for American Innovation, a think tank focused on promoting innovation, strengthening governance, and advancing national security. Blake and I appreciate the opportunity to respond to this item, which will have a substantive impact on the current and future development of America's drone ecosystem. Our response focuses on several unresolved problems in existing regulations and offers potential revisions to those areas. This comment will address four provisions of the proposed rule:
- The proposed rule requires written notice per operation to site managers for all commercial drone operations within Standard UAFRs. This model creates a compliance burden that scales against operational success. Instead, we propose a standing-notification alternative.
- The proposed rule defines eligibility for 7 of 16 critical infrastructure sectors using open-ended language, undefined criteria, or no criteria at all. We identify which sectors lack a checkable standard, and propose requiring concrete, size-bounded criteria before any facility in those sectors can qualify for a UAFR.
- The proposed rule gives the FAA broad discretion to designate Special UAFRs without a consistent standard for weighing an established commercial drone corridor against security needs and without a mandatory review of cumulative impacts. We propose a high, consistent standard for that determination and a 24-month review of such standards and designations focused on metropolitan areas with a concentrated defense-industrial or military presence.
- The proposed rule's preamble states that Part 74 would resolve regulatory confusion between federal and state drone authority, while its Executive Order 13132 Federalism analysis concludes the rule has no federalism implications. We ask the FAA to reconcile these two positions and state explicitly whether Part 74 preempts existing state laws governing drone access to critical infrastructure.
