Rep. Graves identifies opportunities for industry-govt collaboration

May 6, 2021 | AUVSI News

To kick off the final day of the virtual segment of XPONENTIAL 2021, Congressman Garret Graves delivered keynote remarks on the current state of of government-industry collaboration.

Rep. Graves represents Louisiana’s Sixth Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he serves as the Ranking Member on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Subcommittee on Aviation. In his remarks, he identified opportunities to build consensus and support innovation that advances shared priorities. 

Innovation bridges divides

Throughout his tenure in Congress, Rep. Graves has been a leader in promoting research and development of unmanned and autonomous technologies. During a time in which many Americans feel the political discourse on Capitol Hill is too divisive, Rep. Graves emphasized how his work on these issues has provided opportunities to bring together bipartisan coalitions, foster relationships across the aisle and support initiatives that benefit Americans regardless of political affiliation.

Rep. Graves told attendees, “Unmanned systems is absolutely one of those amazing opportunities” with the power to bring different groups together in pursuit of mutual interests and shared goals. Across domains and use cases, elected lawmakers, regulatory agencies and industry are working together to advance safety, broaden access to goods and services and improve efficiency. 

Regulations should support innovation

“The opportunities before us now are endless,” Rep. Graves asserted – but in order to maintain the U.S.’s status as a global leader in aerospace, we must pursue a regulatory environment that enables this industry to thrive.

Regulatory frameworks can support innovation by bringing stability and predictability while remaining wide enough to support flexibility as technology continues to advance and evolve. FAA’s recent rulemaking on Remote ID is an important example of performance-based regulations; still, more work remains to be done to support routine operations.

Rep. Graves stressed that regulators have more work ahead to ensure that industry can move forward with operations that are safe and will benefit businesses and the economy – and that the unmanned systems industry should continually engage with lawmakers and regulators throughout this process.