Political Quotes

“I would like to speak in support of several amendments that I am offering to the FAA reauthorization bill. You may recall that in 2011 some of my colleagues and I offered a bipartisan amendment to a section of the bill that called for the FAA to develop a process to integrate unmanned aerial systems, UAVs or unmanned aerial vehicles, into the NAS, the National Airspace System. That legislation included drafting a plan to develop air traffic requirements for all unmanned aerial systems at test sites; certification and flight standards at nonmilitary UAS test sites, as well as the National Airspace System; and making sure that the U.S. integration plan is incorporated in NextGen, the administration's project to modernize the American air traffic control system. Importantly, it also called for the agency to designate six test sites to help accelerate the NAS integration plan. These test sites were established in December of 2013, following a competitive process that encouraged some of the very best in the fledgling field of unmanned aerial systems to apply and compete for the test sites. I am proud to say that Grand Forks in my home State of North Dakota made the cut and is one of the premier test sites and hubs for UAS research and development in America.…”