Sigmo
lvl.4
United States
Offline
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It sounds like this AMA is an organization worth supporting.
As a ham, I'm a paying member of the ARRL, and feel that their lobbying efforts on behalf of the ham community is well worth the membership dues. The same may well be true of the AMA. I'll have to look into that.
Keep in mind that the FAA, like the EPA, NRC, FCC, etc., is a government agency. Their administrators are not elected directly by the people. Instead, they're appointed. With all a president has to do, they may not get around to scrutinizing who has been appointed already to oversee the various agencies. So one never knows if those administrators are always looking out for the best interests of the people of the US, or may have other motivations. So it's worth keeping an eye on who is doing what to further whichever agendas may be entrenched in such agencies or motivated by various lobbyists, etc. So we need to be our own lobbyists and be watchful for corruption, etc.
At the least, we need to read these proposed new regulations and comment. And further, we may need to bring things to the attention of our elected officials so they can do whatever is possible and also scrutinize these appointed agency heads, and even replace them, etc.
If bad rules get made, and we haven't bothered ourselves to read the proposals and at least comment on them, then we're part of our own problems.
One thing to remember is that these agencies have the power to make rules (regulations) which have the force of law. Those regulations are not voted on by congress just as the administrators of these agencies are not voted on by congress. In other words, the voters have no direct control over what effectively end up having the force of laws.
Further, many agencies are now expected to be at least partially "self funding". Which means that they are not elected, but have the power to create what are, effectively laws, AND they have a profit motive!
This may sound OK at first, but imagine this: These agencies, whose administrators and employees now have a personal interest in enlarging the attgencies' budgets, can simply create rules and regulations that will bring in more money for themselves. Wouldn't you love to have a company that could make law? You could set up regulations and impose fines for violations. You could make licensing requirements and set license fees. And you could investigate "violators", take them to court, and fine them or reach "agreements" with them, etc. Hmm.
Not to get into the dirty details, but as someone who has personally had their life altered drastically, and been put through years of torment by rogue agents of the EPA, whose misdeeds were then backed up by a corrupt DOJ, I am EXTREMELY wary of "agency rulemaking" and the virtually unlimited power these agencies can have.
Just beware folks.
And if you'd care for some "light reading" on this subject, read particularly chapter 2 of this:
https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.c ... /WLF%20timeline.pdf
And as you read that document, imagine how this could all apply to someone flying a drone.
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