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119-hr-8492119th CongressWALLET

Public Safety UAS Readiness Act

Sponsored By: Representative Subramanyam, Suhas [D-VA-10]

Introduced

Summary

Grants to train unmanned aircraft system (UAS) pilots for public safety missions create a federal program to fund training, instructor development, and equipment for fire, EMS, and law enforcement UAS teams. The program ties training to FAA rules and national safety standards to standardize skills and safety practices across agencies.

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  • Public safety agencies and first responders get grant support to build UAS training programs, buy compliant UAS equipment, and cover reasonable administrative costs. Training covers FAA regulations, airspace basics, risk management, flight execution, data collection, and public safety mission profiles.
  • Training organizations and instructors must use or license curriculum through a national nonprofit public safety training entity and can get funds to develop and validate public safety UAS instructors for regional service. Recipients must report on personnel trained, instructor certifications, instructor involvement, and UAS deployments.
  • Underserved regions, high-risk operations, and multi-agency or regional training collaborations are prioritized for awards to expand capacity where it is lacking.

*Authorizes $10 million per year for fiscal years 2026 through 2029, totaling $40 million in new federal spending, which increases federal spending and would likely increase the deficit absent offsets.*

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

1 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.

Drone training grants for public safety

This bill would create a Department of Transportation grant program, run by the FAA Administrator, to fund public safety drone pilot training. It would authorize $10,000,000 per year for each fiscal year 2026 through 2029. Eligible applicants would include government or nonprofit fire, EMS, and law enforcement; state or regional training academies; interagency drone collaboratives; and qualifying national nonprofits. Grants would pay to build training programs and curricula, certify and validate public safety instructors, buy drones that meet federal safety rules for training, and cover reasonable administrative and student-support costs. Applicants would need to submit a detailed plan on oversight, risk management, airspace coordination, equipment maintenance, data privacy, and legal compliance. Funded programs would have to follow applicable federal aviation law and named national standards, and recipients would report program metrics annually while the Secretary would report to Congress each year.

Sponsors & CoSponsors

Sponsor

Subramanyam, Suhas [D-VA-10]

VA • D

Cosponsors

  • Rep. Bresnahan, Robert P. [R-PA-8]

    PA • R

    Sponsored 4/23/2026

  • Rep. Van Drew, Jefferson [R-NJ-2]

    NJ • R

    Sponsored 7/15/2026

Roll Call Votes

No roll call votes available for this bill.

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