Washington The White House wants Congress to enact legislation that would give the federal, state, and local governments more ability to deal with drones that fly in U.S. airspace, as public anxiety over drones operating in the skies over New Jersey and other East Coast states has grown.
In an interview with NBC’s “TODAY” program on Tuesday, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby stated, “We do need better authorities to deal with that growing ecosystem of drones in U.S. airspace.”
According to Kirby, there are gaps in the federal, state, and municipal government’s ability to handle drones.
“Congress needs to help us get through this,” he stated.
Kirby said the federal government has done some analysis on the drones over the past several days in an effort to convince the public that the Biden administration is handling the surge in drone reports.
“Our assessment leads us to conclude that these are lawful and legal aviation activities, manned and unmanned drones and civil aviation aircraft or commercial aircraft,” he stated. We are aware that there isn’t a threat to national security. We are aware that there is currently no threat to public safety.
Additionally, Kirby stated that White House representatives are being as “open and as transparent with the American people as we can be.”
Speaking separately on Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Kirby stated that President Joe Biden is requesting a bipartisan committee to look into the matter.
“We put forward a bill. “We need more authorities, but it hasn’t gone anywhere on Capitol Hill,” he stated.
According to two people familiar with the arrangement, members of the House Intelligence Committee will be briefed on the drone sightings behind closed doors on Tuesday. The briefing will be given at 2:00 PM ET by representatives of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI, and the CIA.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has been urged by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to address the drones in the Northeast using specialized drone technology, particularly the 360-degree equipment from Robin Radar Systems.
Additionally, Schumer stated that he will work to enact legislation that would let state and local law enforcement organizations to employ equipment to identify unmanned aerial devices.Sen. Gary Peters, a Democrat from Michigan, sponsored the bill last year, and the House also presented a bipartisan companion bill. One of its backers, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., put out the proposal before to being elected to his position as leader. Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., are being urged by Reps. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., and Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., to incorporate the measure into the government funding package that Congress is anticipated to complete before the holidays.
There doesn’t appear to be anything suspicious about the drones, according to a joint statement released Monday by the FBI, Homeland Security Department, Defense Department, and Federal Aviation Administration.
“Having closely examined the technical data and tips from concerned citizens, we assess that the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones,” the agencies stated. “We have not identified anything anomalous and do not assess the activity to date to present a national security or public safety risk over the civilian airspace in New Jersey or other states in the northeast.”
About 100 of the more than 5,000 tips the FBI has received in recent weeks, according to the statement, needed additional investigation.
Although the FAA has over a million drones in its database and mandates drone registration, experts have stated that it’s unclear if everyone complies with the rule.
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