New senate unmanned aerial vehicle caucus to tackle privacy issues.

• Author: Tadjdeh, Yasmin
• Position: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

While Washington lawmakers remain deeply divided down party lines, several senators have reached across the aisle to form a new unmanned aerial vehicle caucus.

One of the top priorities will be the impact of UAV surveillance in U.S. airspace on citizen's privacy, said lawmakers.

Legislation passed earlier this year requires the Federal Aviation Administration to integrate the aircraft into national airspace by 2015. The bipartisan caucus intends to educate other senators about the growing technology.

"The increased use of unmanned aerial systems means we must ensure that we maximize their potential while minimizing their risk," said co-chair of the caucus Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., in an email.

The eight-member caucus includes: Sens. Manchin, Jim Inhofe, R-Okla.; Jerry Moran, R-Kan.; Mark Begich, D-Alaska; Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas; Mark Warner, D-Va.; John Hoeven, R-N.D.; and Kirsten Gilli-brand, D-N.Y.

"It's important for all of us to understand how we can use this advancing technology to strengthen our national security and improve our ability to respond in case of natural or man-made disasters, while at the same time ensuring the privacy and wellbeing of all of our law-abiding American citizens," said Manchin.

Manchin said the group of four Democrats and four Republicans will work in a bipartisan fashion. Other senators might be joining soon, he said.

Hutchison said, "UAVs have proven to be an invaluable resource for our forces on the battlefield, intelligence gathering, homeland security and scientific purposes ... The UAV caucus will educate lawmakers about the value of these systems and help create policy related to UAV development and deployment."

A Senate caucus on unmanned systems has been a long time coming with recent technology developments, said one congressional aide.

The Federal Aviation Administration Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 mandated that the FAA integrate unmanned aircraft into the domestic airspace by 2015. A key deadline establishing six pilot sites by Aug. 12 was not met.

"What we are seeing across the board, in homeland security, [and] in private industry ... [is] there has been legislation that has been proposed, but there hasn't been a collective number of members that have gotten together to actually openly discuss it," said the aide who works for co-chair Inhofe.

It is essential for an open discussion to take place in the Senate on unmanned systems, and for the dialogue to include senators...