Two bills aimed at regulating drones were introduced this year; one by a Republican in the House (HB1115), and one by a Democrat in the Senate (SB059). Both bills quickly received bi-partisan sponsorship. Both bills shared the same motivation: protecting privacy from unscrupulous private citizens and from potentially overzealous government.

The initial version of both bills were harmful to Colorado’s UAS Industry. In January, I started organizing communications between UAS stakeholders and shortly after became the UAS Colorado Legislative Committee Chair.

Representative Polly Lawrence’s House Bill 1115 began life titled “Use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles,” included definitions of what constituted a UAS and contained data retention limits that would have affected private companies performing contracts for agencies like CDOT or the Dept of Wildlife.

Through a strong stakeholder process, the 4 page regulation (ignoring legislative declarations and effective dates) shrunk to 1 page of technology agnostic language focused on an act and not the tool. The version focuses only on using technology to invade someones privacy and to harass them in a public space - regardless of the tool used. The community of reviewers have found the language acceptable enough to be at least “neutral” on the bill, if not, in “support.” The full text of the new version is available upon request.

Senator Newell’s Senate Bill 059 was far more troublesome. The initial version attempted to regulate airspace and partially affect airmen certification rules in conflict with FAA jurisdiction. Additionally, it placed illogical warrant requirements for any government use. The initial version of the bill would have harmed everyone from Dept of Natural Resources, UAS industry and even AMA RC modeler aircraft pilots.

Despite constant feedback and engagement, SB059 didn’t become less egregious as new drafts were released. While it’s structure changed significantly and it eventually addressed only government use, the bill didn’t specify what acts it was meant to proscribe rather outlawing by default with a list of exceptions. This is akin to how law treats cocaine or explosives. Further, as we all know, there is no way for a list of exceptions that can updated via a once a year amendment process could ever keep up with the pace of UAS innovation.

Challenging SB059 presented very difficult political problems. It had a Democratic Sponsor with two Republican co-sponsors, one of which is the Chair of the Joint Budget Committee that is in charge of funding initiatives from both the Senate and the House. Further, the bill was assigned to the 5 member Senate Judicial Committee and 2 of the members were co-sponsors of the bill.

We were facing a bill with bipartisan support, nearly guaranteed to get out of committee and had support of one of the Colorado legislature’s 800 pound gorillas. We needed help, badly. First we found Sara Moser, owner of Moser Aviation and former congressional aide. She knew the players and the tools we needed to obtain: principally we needed lobbyist. Then we found Robert Gardner, a former 3 term member of the Colorado House. Lastly, and most importantly, Jeff Weist, the lobbyist for the Colorado Competitive Council, found us. After some reference checking, he became the registered lobbyist for UAS Colorado and the effort to address SB059 began in earnest.

Weist facilitated weeks of daily communication with lawmakers his relationships with lawmakers and other lobbyists allowed for critically key routes of persuasion and unity that would have been utterly unavailable to us otherwise.

This work culminated in a Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on February 24th.

We co-ordinated a series of preparatory conference calls between witnesses while Jeff Weist collaborated with lobbyists representing law enforcement, the governors office and others. This led to a stellar line up of witnesses with a cohesive message to the committee: SB059 was a bad bill, it focused on the tool and not the act, the exceptions could never keep pace with progress, and it was poorly timed in light of the recent FAA sUAS rules and the Presidential Memorandum on UAS and Privacy.

At the hearing, there were many witnesses opposed to SB059 and a single witness in support, ACLU lawyer and author of SB059 language, Denise Maes. Many thanks for the superb testimony provided by the following witnesses:

Dana Reynolds, Deputy Director of Colorado Division of Homeland Security
Jeff VerSteeg, Assistant Director Colorado Parks and Wildlife
Jay Kirby, Inspector General, Department of Corrections
Major General Jay Lindell, USAF retired, Aerospace Champion from Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade
Jennifer Anderson, Office of the Attorney General
Ben Miller, UAS Program Director, Mesa County Sheriff’s Office
Stephen Meer, UAS Program Director, Boulder County Sheriff’s Office
Melissa Zak, Chief of Police, CU Boulder
Brian Argrow, Director of RECUV Lab, CU Boulder
Brian Cozart, Juniper Unmanned, CU Denver, Metro State
Col Sean McClung, USAF Ret, Chairman of UAS Colorado
Allen Bishop, AUVSI and Reference Technologies
John Hugely, Vice Chairman, UAS Colorado
Chris Huston, Chair of Legislative Committee, UAS Colorado
Jennifer Jones, Denver Chamber of Commerce
Vicky Lea, Aviation Director, Metro Denver Economic Development Corp
Meghan Dollar, Legislative and Policy Advocate, Colorado Municipal League

When the dust settled, SB059 was defeated 3 to 2 with Keven Lundberg voting against a bill he co-sponsored. This was a major win in very difficult circumstances. I have to recognize both Lundberg and Newell as good people with good intentions and who were big enough to acknowledge that SB059 wasn't the right solution. I owe them a debt to help get the next one right.

However, the appetite to regulate UAS has not diminished in either the senate or the house. HB 1115 has become a target for anti-drone amendments. We still have work to do to either head off the amendments or combat them when they are introduced. The 2016 session will certainly bring more legislation. I'm hopeful that the UAS business community will join and support UAS Colorado's efforts to protect Colorado's drone industry.