Advocacy

The Unmanned Systems Association of Virginia (USAV) was formed in 2016 to serve as a statewide organization representing air, land, and sea unmanned systems companies with an immediate charge of lobbying to ensure Virginia remains the top state for the unmanned systems industry. Below is recap of USAV’s legislative successes, which have led to significant inroads toward the association’s goal of protecting the industry and advancing Virginia’s leadership in this sector.

Upcoming 2025 Legislative Session

We expect there will be a number of bills introduced in the 2025 Virginia legislative session related to UAS made by foreign adversaries, as well as legislation that will seek to place limits on where UAS may fly (within Virginia). The latter is expected as a response to an increased number of UAS dropping contraband within prison facilities.

2024 Legislative Session:

Artificial Intelligence. Given all the recent media reports regarding ChatGPT and artificial intelligence, seven bills related to artificial intelligence were introduced, but only one bill, SB487 (Aird) made it through both chambers. As originally introduced, the bill sought to limit public bodies from utilizing AI unless certain criteria were met. SB487 was ultimately amended and requires the Joint Commission on Technology and Science to undertake an analysis of AI and submit a report by December 1, 2024. The bill is before the Governor and awaiting action by April 8. Other bills related to artificial intelligence that were introduced included SB621(Pillion): SB164 (Reeves); SB385 (Pekarsky); SJ14 (Subramanyam); HB249 (Glass); HB747 (Maldonado)
Consumer Data Protection. Multiple bills aimed at safeguarding children by requiring data platforms to obtain parental consent and other information were introduced. Given the complexity of the issue, and the many questions it raised, most of the introduced bills were defeated, and SB361 (VanValkenburg) and HB707 (Maldonado) are the two bills that ultimately passed both chambers. These bills require certain consents and prohibit controllers from selling personal data from a known child, or targeting advertising towards a known child, unless such processing is reasonably necessary to provide the online feature. The bills are now before Governor Youngkin and he has until April 8 to act. Other consumer data related bills that were introduced included SB432 (Suetterlein); SB359 (VanValkenburg); SB264 (Craig); SB252 (McDougle); HB1468 (Leftwich); HB1161 (Wyatt); HB1115 (Hodges); and HB821 (Cherry)
Virginia General Assembly Aviation & Aerospace Caucus. Lt. Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, along with co-chairs Sen. Bill DeSteph and Del. Karrie Delaney, were instrumental in bringing to life the Aviation and Aerospace Caucus after six years of dormancy. As part of the Caucus, policymakers and other stakeholders were given an opportunity to discuss, on a weekly basis, issues related to Virginia’s aviation industry, including advanced aerial mobility and unmanned aerial systems.
General Assembly 2024 Budget. Governor Youngkin introduced his budget in December 2023 and the General Assembly members introduced a number of related amendments, including Item 394 #12h and Item 394#14s which sought to create a grant fund to assist the state with purchases for drones manufactured by companies domiciled in the US. While the amendment did not make it into the final budget, funding for the establishment of an advanced air aviation test site was finalized by Item 422 #1c, which provides $1M for the development of the opportunity in cooperation with Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority.

2023 Legislative Session:

Protecting UAS Against Expanded Criminal Charges. HB2020 (Wachsmann) and SB1073 (Hackworth) as introduced, would have made it a Class 1 misdemeanor to come within 400 feat of the lateral boundaries of a correctional facility. USAV worked with the patrons and the bills were amended to prohibit the dropping of items or the taking of photos (without prior approval of a legal authority) within the perimeters of a correctional facility.
Supporting Efforts to Grow Virginia’s Workforce. SB1470 (Ruff) Created the Department of Workforce Development and Advancement which will oversee apprenticeship programs and implement systems to support the sharing of data and establishment of standards for apprenticeship programs.

2022 Legislative Session:

Extending the Tax Exemption on Unmanned Aircraft Parts and Supplies. SB701 (Kiggans) and HB462 (Austin) extend the sunset on the tax exemption for manned and unmanned parts, engines and supplies used for maintaining and repairing aircraft has passed (to 2025). This legislation was amended in committee to place a takeoff weight limit on manned aircraft of 2,400 pounds; however, we actively lobbied against a weight limit for UAS.
Meeting Future Workforce Goals under the Innovative Internship Program. SB667 (Hashmi) directs the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia to partner with the Office of Education and Labor Market Alignment to collect and utilize data that identifies among other things, state workforce needs for which there is a lack of work-based learning opportunities.

2021 Legislative Session:

Protecting UAS Owners From Registration and Tax Requirements. SB1098 (Favola) and HB 1851 (Delaney) sought to exempt an owner of an unmanned aircraft from the requirement to register with the Department of Aviation, which would subsequently, trigger a tax requirement. USAV monitored and advocated for legislation in an effort to ensure clarity in the law. The legislation passed the General Assembly and has been signed by the Governor.
Protecting Ground and Aerial Unmanned Systems From Overly Broad Data Privacy Requirements. SB1392 (Marsden) and HB2307 (Hayes) related to data privacy put in place a framework for controlling and processing of personal data. USAV worked to ensure there was not a private right of action and advocated against overly broad language that would have impeded the collection of data by unmanned systems. The legislation does not become effective until January 1, 2023, and in the interim, the Joint Commission on Technology and Science will create a work group to discuss best practice and make recommendations regarding the implementation of the legislation.

2020 Legislative Session:

Preserving Industry’s Commercial Abilities Against Municipal Overreach. HB742 (Bulova), as originally introduced, would have authorized a political subdivision to regulate the take-off and landing of unmanned aircraft on property owned by the political subdivision. USAV worked closely with the bill patron to ensure that exemptions for public safety and commercial use were added to the legislation and helped ensure a greater level of uniformity for those operators who do not meet the exemption criteria, by successfully working with the patron to task the Department of Aviation with promulgating one uniform standard by developing regulations governing local take-offs and landings. The Governor has signed the bill with USAV’s amendments.
Defeating a Tax on UAS. SB356 (Cosgrove) as originally introduced, extended the number of days (from 60 to 90) in which an aircraft may be located in the Commonwealth during a calendar year before registering with the Dept. of Aviation. The legislation was amended mid-way through the session to require to require UAS to pay Virginia’s aircraft sales and use tax. USAV worked closely with the Governor’s office in preparation for the reconvened session and the bill was amended to remove all harmful impacts to UAS.
Protecting UAS Systems Against Expanded Felony Charges. HB345 (Wyatt) sought to prohibit any person from knowingly and intentionally causing an unmanned aircraft from coming within a distance of 500 feet or vertical distance of 250 feet from any local or state correctional facility and sought to increase to a Class 6 felony the use of a drone to deliver, attempt to deliver, or conspire with another to deliver any controlled substance or marijuana to a prisoner confined in a local or state correctional facility. The bill did not pass.
Protecting UAS Systems Against Expanded Criminal Charges. HB118 (Knight) provided that a person who knowingly and intentionally caused an unmanned aircraft system to come within 400 feet of the lateral boundaries of any local or state correctional facility would be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. USAV participated in lobbying the bill and it did not pass.
Ensuring the Future of Autonomous Sidewalk Vehicles. SB748 (Marsden) USAV actively supported legislation to better ensure a greater number of unmanned personal delivery devices are able to operate on Virginia’s sidewalks. USAV lobbied in support of the bill and the Governor signed the legislation on 4/22/20.
Protecting the Future of Autonomous Vehicles in Virginia. HB 874 (Bourne),While well-intentioned, distracted driving legislation can have serious impacts on the industry’s ability to grow the autonomous motor vehicle (AV) sector, by placing broad prohibitions on all moving vehicles, without creating exceptions for vehicles operating in autonomous mode. During the 2020 legislative session, 14 bills were introduced that sought to create limits on the use of hand-held devices. USAV worked closely with our members to ensure that the language in the bills was narrow and did not inadvertently capture vehicles operating in autonomous mode. The Governor signed the bill.
Protecting Against Cyber Security Policies that Impede the Growth of Autonomous Systems. While neither HB 68 (Carter) or HB 473 (Sickles) made it out of the committees to which they were assigned, USAV closely monitored the progress of these bills to ensure there were no impacts on unmanned systems. As introduced, HB68 sought to prohibit an original equipment manufacturer of a digital device from deactivating software. Given the broad definition of digital device, USAV had concerns that unmanned technology could be impacted. HB473 sought to put in place numerous measures regarding the collection and transparency of personal data, which could have unintended consequences on the data collected by unmanned systems. USAV will continue to monitor related issues and engage as necessary on these types of issues.

2019 Legislative Session:

Expanding the Use of UAS by Law Enforcement. SB1507 (Carrico): SB1507 as passed provides that a law-enforcement officer may deploy an unmanned aircraft system (i) to aerially survey a primary residence of the subject of the arrest warrant to formulate a plan to execute an existing arrest warrant or capias for a felony offense or (ii) to locate a person sought for arrest when such person has fled from a law-enforcement officer and a law-enforcement officer remains in hot pursuit of such person. USAV supported the legislation.
Protecting Against Expanded Criminal Charges. HB1636 (Knight): HB1636 as originally introduced sought to make it a misdemeanor for UAS that entered (within one mile) the airspace of a military airfield or helicopter landing zone. USAV worked with the patron on an amendment that ensured only UAS in violation of FAA Special Security Instructions or UAS Security Sensitive Airspace Restrictions could be guilty of a misdemeanor. The bill was signed with USAV’s amendment.
Promoting the Commonwealth of Virginia as a Leader in UAS. SJ347 (Cosgrove) and HR303 & (Yancey): The resolution, which USAV advanced and which successfully passed both the Senate and House, recognize the Center for Innovative Technology and the Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership, along with the Counties of Buckingham, Cumberland, Loudoun, Montgomery, Prince Edward, Wise, as well as Google Wing, Intel, AT&T, Airbus Aerial, State Farm, Dominion Energy, Sinclair Broadcast Group and HAZON Solutions, for their work to successfully compete for the FAA’s Unmanned Aerial Systems Integration Pilot Program in which Virginia was selected as one of only ten sites to test and perform some of the most complex unmanned vehicle flight testing ever attempted in the United States.
Protecting the Future of Autonomous Vehicles in Virginia. SB1341(Stuart) and HB1811 (Collins): While neither SB1341 or HB1811 ultimately passed, the bills sought to put in place provisions to prohibit drivers from holding a mobile phone was driving a motor vehicle. USAV tracked the legislation to ensure no unintended consequences on autonomous vehicles.

2018 Legislative Session:

Establishing a uniform framework for unmanned aerial regulation. One of the top concerns USAV heard from its members was the complicated compliance scenario of each locality, park authority, school board, etc. adopting its own rules and regulations, many of which could be in violation of federal law. USAV quickly turned to other stakeholders and leaders in the House and Senate to introduce SB 526 (Obenshain) and HB 638 (Collins). The bills make permanent a complete prohibition on a political subdivision’s ability to regulate the use of privately owned unmanned aircraft systems. The bills also set out a criminal trespass provision targeted at “bad actors,” which continue to generate challenges with respect to policy discussions with members of the General Assembly.
Working to integrate unmanned aerial systems in the public airspace. USAV supported SB 307 (Cosgrove), which directs the Department of Aviation to convene a work group, in coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration and other responsible agencies, to explore issues related to the integration of UAS into the Commonwealth’s airspace. This will be an important study over the course of 2018 and USAV will work with its members to ensure industry is represented.
Generating procurement opportunities within the Commonwealth. USAV supported SB 508 (Carrico) and HB 1482 (Thomas), which allow unmanned aircraft to be operated without a warrant (i) by a law-enforcement officer to survey the scene of an accident for the purpose of crash reconstruction and record photographic or video images of the scene and (ii) by the Department of Transportation when assisting a law-enforcement officer to prepare a report of such accident because of personal injury, death, or property damage of $1,500 or more. Passage of this legislation opens the door for unmanned aerial crash reconstruction services purchased through a multi-state and statewide RFP issued by the Department of General Services.