The Senate on Tuesday approved new bipartisan legislation to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that includes a number of provisions designed to enhance aviation security and bolster the safety of operating unmanned aircraft systems (UAS)
The Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act of 2016 (S. 2658) was approved by a vote of 95-3 and includes several amendments passed earlier this month related to aviation and transportation security, including allowing the Transportation Security Administration to double the number of mobile security teams nationwide and permitting them to operate in non-sterile areas of airports.
TSA current has 30 Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response, or VIPR, teams with about 60 percent of their operations occurring at airports and the rest in surface transportation venues. Following the recent terrorist attacks in an airport and train station in Brussels, there is heightened interest in these mobile security teams in the United States.
The FAA bill, which now goes to the House, also includes a measure to allow TSA to have real-time access to additional terrorism-related databases maintained by the intelligence community and to conduct real-time continuous criminal records checks through the FBI. This amendment, which was also approved earlier in the month during consideration of the bill, also directs the agency to expand random physical inspections of airport employees in secure areas of an airport and at entrances to secure areas, and to conduct more red team and covert tests of access control to secure areas.
A slew of provisions in the bill cover UAS operations and regulations, including a section directing the FAA and National Institute of Standards and Technology to work with stakeholders to develop risk-based consensus industry standards on drone safety. It would also establish a simpler process for airworthiness approval for small UAS based on consensus standards.
The bill also gives the FAA authority to approve nighttime and beyond-line-of-sight operations for UAS.
The Association of Unmanned Vehicles Systems International, which advocates for UAS, lauded passage of the FAA bill.
“Today’s passage of an FAA reauthorization measure by the Senate is a critical milestone for accelerating the civil and commercial use of unmanned aircraft systems, as well as expanding collaborative research and operations,” Brian Wynne, head of the association, said in a blog post on Tuesday.
Wynne also called for the FAA to finalize a rule on small UAS operations so that there is “an established regulatory framework for UAS that will allow for more widespread commercial use of the technology.”
The bill also establishes a pilot project for the FAA to examine how to mitigate hazards posed by UAS operations at public use airports and for critical infrastructure. Along these lines, another provision of the bill directs the FAA to create a program to use technologies to remotely detect and identify UAS to that the agency and other federal entities can “pursue appropriate enforcement actions against UAS operators who violate applicable laws and regulations,” a summary of the bill says.
The Senate also wants the FAA, working with NADSA, to “develop a research plan and implement a pilot program for an unmanned aircraft system traffic management.”
“This legislation does more to enhance security against the threat of terrorism and help frustrated passengers than any proposal in recent history,” Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Commerce and Transportation Committee, said in a statement. “We should not delay action on security enhancements in this bill or public safety benefits from the proper management of drones.”
The bill also contains a section directing the FAA to find ways to systematically include cyber security throughout air traffic control systems, including the NextGen programs.
“The FAA would also be required to develop a threat model that will identify vulnerabilities to better focus resources to mitigate cybersecurity risks, develop an appropriate plan to mitigate cybersecurity risk, respond to an attack or intrusion and to adapt to evolving cybersecurity threats, and to foster a cybersecurity culture throughout the DoT (Department of Transportation), including in an air traffic control program and relevant contractors,” the bill summary says.
The Senate version of the bill excludes a measure that the House is considering, which is to have an independent air traffic control organization.