---
type: "Bill"
title: "Aviation; unmanned aircraft systems; provide for preemption"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 1 of Title 6 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to general provisions regarding aviation, so as to provide for preemption for unmanned aircraft systems; to define a term; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2017_18"
identifier: "HB 481"
citation: "Georgia HB 481 (2017_18)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Ed Rynders", "James Epps", "Kevin Tanner", "Rich Golick"]
version_count: 0
action_count: 15
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2017-02-23"
last_action: "2017-07-01"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/c62d1a03-e175-4122-afe9-3b727fe1fc8c"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "10b90fb37fd1f29ef3e29c5665aaf06e6923f39e8439e4f6f9ce947320bebc20"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ga"]
---

# Georgia HB 481 (2017_18) — Aviation; unmanned aircraft systems; provide for preemption

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 1 of Title 6 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to general provisions regarding aviation, so as to provide for preemption for unmanned aircraft systems; to define a term; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.


## Votes

- PASSAGE — **164–1** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Ed Rynders — primary (person)
- James Epps — primary (person)
- Kevin Tanner — primary (person)
- Rich Golick — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-02-23** House Hopper
- **2017-02-24** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2017-02-27** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2017-03-01** House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-03-03** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2017-03-03** House Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2017-03-06** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2017-03-09** Senate Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-03-10** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2017-03-28** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2017-03-28** Senate Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2017-04-04** House Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2017-05-09** House Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2017-05-09** Act 268 `executive-signature`
- **2017-07-01** Effective Date

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/c62d1a03-e175-4122-afe9-3b727fe1fc8c`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).