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Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in House · May 18, 2023
Increasing Competitiveness for American Drones Act of 2023
This bill establishes and extends certain rules and authorities related to unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and operations.
Specifically, the bill requires the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to establish a regulatory pathway for certification or approval of UAS to enable commercial beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations, including a risk assessment methodology.
Showing the opening paragraphs of the official summary.
Additionally, the bill establishes the Office of Associate Administrator of UAS Integration within the FAA. Among other duties, the office must (1) ensure and oversee the safe integration of UAS into the national airspace system, and (2) encourage and facilitate a commercially viable UAS industry and the leadership of the United States in UAS.
The bill also establishes the UAS Certification Unit to develop and implement the UAS certification or approval processes for BVLOS operations.
The bill extends the FAA's UAS Test Site Program, which provides verification of the safety of public and civil UAS, operations, and related navigation procedures before their integration into the national airspace system. The bill also modifies the program to require the FAA to use modeling and simulation tools to assist in the testing, evaluation, verification, and validation of UAS.
Further, the bill extends the special authority for the Department of Transportation to provide exemptions from some requirements for UAS by using a risk-based approach to determine if certain UAS may operate safely in the national airspace system.
People & committees
Rep. Yakym, Rudy [R-IN-2] · R–IN
Legislative record
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Referred to the Subcommittee on Aviation.
Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We currently store references to these documents.
Source last updated: Dec 5, 2025. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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