Lummis and Others Introduce Drone Legislation

U.S. Representative to Wyoming, Cynthia Lummis,  joined 22 of her colleagues, in the US House of Representatives, in introducing H.R. 6199, the Preserving American Privacy Act. According to an official release from Lummis’s office, the bill is designed to protect individual citizens’ privacy from the increasing domestic use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or U-A-V, commonly known as “drones.”

Already deployed on the battlefield and along our nation’s borders, Lummis’s offices says that drones are now being used domestically by private and governmental entities. According to the release, H.R. 6199 would “prohibit drone surveillance without a warrant; prohibit drone surveillance by private entities without the subject’s consent; and, prohibit agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency from using drone-collected surveillance in administrative hearings.”

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) currently grants permits for limited drone use on a case-by-case basis. Numerous domestic federal agencies, research institutions and state and local law enforcement currently have active permits.

The FAA is also working towards the wholesale integration of drones into United States airspace by 2015.