Welcome to the tech policy podcast, your source for policy rants and raves from Tech

Freedom. We want to do the D.C. advocate for the freedom to tinker and innovate. I'm Evan

Swartstraver, your host. On today's show, drones and disaster relief. Can drones be used for

humanitarian purposes? How effective is that? And what role do regulations play here and around the

world? Joining me in our DC studio to discuss this is Ashley Holmes. She is an intern here at Tech

Freedom and a graduate student at George Washington

University's Elliott School of International Affairs here in Washington, D.C. She's earning a

master's with a focus on information and communication technology in international affairs and

development. She is also a U.S. Army veteran who served as a Signal Corps officer for more than eight years and as a public affairs officer in the Army Reserve for almost two years.

Ashley, thank you so much for joining me.

Thank you for having me.

Well, that's quite an impressive resumes, so I'm excited to talk to you.

So the Federal Aviation Administration, the FAA, that is the regulatory body that is charged with

developing regulations for drones. And much of the media coverage around this issue in the

United States, at least, has focused on commercial and recreational use. So you've got your

hobbyist in a backyard, you know, flying and he lives too close to an airport. How do they deal

with that? And then you've got,

you know, news organizations wanting to use drones to, you know, cover the news and Amazon to deliver

packages. But something that's kind of gone onto the radar is drones can be used for disaster

relief and humanitarian purposes. And while the FAA has been fumbling around trying to figure out

how to regulate

commercial and recreational use, we're going to talk about disaster relief today because

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