H.R. 3983 — Drone Safety and Efficiency Act

This bill directs the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to adopt a performance-based and risk-based approach in reviewing specific waiver requests for the operation of small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), also known as drones. (A small unmanned aircraft weighs less than 55 pounds on takeoff.) The FAA must improve the current established process to submit small UAS waiver requests. The bill prohibits the FAA from requiring the use of open-ended descriptive prompts that must be filled out by an applicant, with exceptions. Further, the FAA must leverage data gathered from previous waiver requests. If the FAA determines that a waiver application is substantially similar to a previously a...