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.
Officials from the FBI, CIA, and the national intelligence director’s office briefed members of the House Intelligence Committee on the drone sightings Tuesday afternoon behind closed doors.
Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., the panel’s top Democrat, stated following the secret briefing that neither illegal nor malicious use of the drones is occurring.
“We repeatedly raised this question after receiving assurances. Referring to a number of conspiracy theories regarding the reasons for the claimed drone sightings, the statement read, “They are not federal government operations to sniff radiation, gas recovery, anything else.”
Another Democrat on the committee, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, said the briefing reiterated that the claimed drone sightings did not point to foreign intervention.
They haven’t discovered anything to date that would suggest foreign actors, influence, or even little green guys are operating on the American people. “Houlahan said.”
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 agencies to employ equipment to detect uncrewed 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 is House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who put forth the proposal prior to being elected to his position as leader. Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., have been urged by Reps. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., and Houlahan to incorporate the legislation into the federal funding package that Congress is anticipated to complete before the holidays.
The short-term funding bill that Congress leaders unveiled Tuesday night includes a clause that would extend a program run by the Department of Homeland Security that permits government agencies to coordinate and combat drone threats.
There doesn’t appear to be anything suspicious about the drones, according to a joint statement released Monday by the FBI, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Defense and Homeland Security departments.
“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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