In January of 2016, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) published a list of the top ten issues that will be before state legislatures across the nation this year. Since Pennsylvania will close out the 2015-2016 session this fall, it’s worth a look to see what our own elected officials are doing to address each of the issues. The next topic up for consideration: Regulating Drones.

Projections for the commercial drone industry over the next decade are staggering, with more than 100,000 new jobs and $82 billion expected to be pumped into the U.S. economy. A drone, also known as an unmanned aircraft, is defined by federal statute as “an aircraft that is operated without the possibility of direct human intervention from within or on the aircraft.” Under federal law, individuals must register a drone weighing between .55 and 55 pounds with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to avoid civil and criminal penalties. Drones over the 55-pound threshold are required to go through a separate registration process. As of June 2016, more than 17,000 drones are registered in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania began taking a look at regulating drones in 2014. Former state Senator Richard Kasunic (D-Fayette) introduced S.B. 1332, which prohibited the use of unmanned aircrafts to interfere or disturb an individual who is lawfully engaged in hunting or fishing. The bill unanimously passed in the Senate, but stalled in the House and was never reported from the House Game and Fisheries committee.

In the summer of 2015, the Senate Aviation Caucus, at the direction of Chairman David Argall (R-Schuylkill) held a public meeting to examine drone technology. The following spring, March of 2016, the Senate Majority Policy committee, along with the Senate State Government, Senate Judiciary and Senate Veterans Affairs & Emergency Preparedness committees, held a public hearing with representatives from the Department of Transportation, the Department of Corrections and the Pennsylvania State police, as well as stakeholders from state and national organizations. Much of the discussion at that hearing—and about drones generally—centered around the ability to use drones for state security, for emergency management and for law enforcement purposes measured against citizen’s rights to remain free from unreasonable search and seizure, as guaranteed by both the Pennsylvania and United States Constitutions.

Additionally, the Pennsylvania Game Commission preliminarily voted to approve a ban on drones flying within state game lands at their meeting in April. Since the federal government has jurisdiction over airspace, the regulation was amended by the Attorney General’s office to reflect such authority. In July, the commissioners unanimously approved to prohibit “operating, controlling, launching or retrieving drones on game lands and other property controlled by the Game Commission.”

Although the debate on drones has started to heat up, the legislature has not been quick to address the issue of how the use of drones should be regulated in the Commonwealth.

In December of 2015, the Senate passed S.R. 238 (Williams, D-Philadelphia), which directs the Joint State Government Commission (JSGC) to conduct a study regarding the use of unmanned drones by State and local agencies, including law enforcement agencies. The study is to be submitted to the General Assembly by January 1, 2017.

Then, in June of 2016, the House of Representatives has passed drone legislation: H.B. 1339 (Pyle, R-Armstrong) would create a new criminal offense in Pennsylvania: the unlawful use of unmanned aircraft. A person commits the offense when they intentionally and knowingly using an unmanned aircraft to conduct surveillance of another person in a private place. The House passed the bill unanimously, and it is now before the Senate Judiciary Committee for consideration.

Though there are a handful of bills before the committees for consideration, it’s very likely that the legislature will hold off taking final action on drone-related bills until the S.R. 238 study is made available early next year. By then, a new session will have started, but we expect the bills noted below to be reintroduced along with any other measures proposed by the JSCG’s report:

  • S.B. 1323 (Argall, R-Schuylkill): Places penalties on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) operators who fly drones over critical facilities without consent throughout the Commonwealth.
  • S.B. 971 (Folmer, R-Lebanon): Calls for a moratorium on the ability of state and local government agencies to fly drones over any Commonwealth municipality before July 1, 2017.
  • H.B. 409 (Cruz, D-Philadelphia): Requires law enforcement officials to obtain an authorization order from a superior court judge before legally using unmanned aircraft surveillance in the Commonwealth.
  • H.B. 1684 (Gainey, D-Allegheny): Prohibits the use of drones over stadiums during sporting events.
  • H.B. 1896 (Mullery, D-Luzerne): Prohibits individuals or organizations from using drones to interfere with lawful hunting, fishing and boating activities.
  • H.R. 295 (Pashinski, D-Luzerne): Urges the Federal Aviation Administration to promulgate regulations and rules to protect Americans from the use of drones capable of inflicting harm or invading privacy.