Drone Legislation Directory

I’m going to break the Drone Legislation Directory up into two sections: passed drone legislation and proposed drone legislation. I’m using the term very loosely to apply to laws that affect hobby/civilian drones in some way. For example, the National Defense Authorization Act of 2017 is primarily military focused but made it legal for the Secretary of Defense to shoot down civilian drones over certain locations.

This page applies ONLY to federal drone legislation, not state. Interested in passed state drone laws? I have a whole page on drone laws (state and international).

I’m presently working on this article so there are gaps and missing proposed acts.

Passed Drone Legislation

• FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 (P.L. 115-254)
• FAA Extension, Safety,  and Security Act of 2016 (FESSA)
• FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012  (FMRA)

Proposed Drone Legislation

Most of these bills were proposed but died very shortly after being introduced.

2018

1. FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 (H.R. 4) from Congressman Shuster.
2. Safeguarding America’s Skies Act of 2018 (H.R.5366) from Congresswoman Hartzler

2017

1. 21st Century AIRR Act (H.R.2997) from Rep. Shuster.
2. Drone Operator Safety Act of 2017 (H.R.3644/S.1755) Senator Whitehouse & Representative Langevin
3. Safe DRONE Act of 2017 (S1410) from Senator Mark Warner.
4. FLIGHT R&D Act (H.R.3198 ) from Rep. Knight
5. Aeronautics Innovation Act (H.R.3033) from Rep. Knight.
6. Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act of 2017 (S.1405 ) from Sen. Thune.
7. Drone Innovation Act of 2017 (HR 2930) from Rep. Lewis
8. Drone Federalism Act of 2017 (S1272) Sen. Feinstein.
9. Military Asset Protection Act (H.R.1968) from Rep. Dunn
10. Wildfire Airspace Protection Act of 2017 (H.R.1138) from Rep. Cook.
11. Drone Aircraft Privacy and Transparency Act of 2017 (H.R.1526 ) Rep. Welch and (S631) from Sen. Markey.
12. No Armed Drones Act of 2017 (HR 129) from Rep. Burgess
13. National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018 (H.R.2810) from Rep. Thornberry.

2016

2015

• Senator Feinstein’s proposed Consumer Drone Safety Act from 2015 
• Congressman Garamendi’s Safe Drone Act of 2015.

Jonathan Rupprecht

Aviation Attorney. FAA Certificated Commercial Pilot and Flight Instructor (CFI/CFII). Contributor at Forbes.com for Aerospace and Defense.