By Brendan Scanland
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Federal lawmakers and local officials across the east coast are still looking for answers from the federal government after several unidentified drone sightings in recent weeks.
Reported sightings began in New Jersey in November. Weeks later, residents, local officials and federal lawmakers in the northeast are still demanding answers.
“This is of deep concern. It’s of national security interest,” said Congressman Nick Langworthy (R- NY). “There’s a real alarm in the public right now and rightfully so, they have every reason to be concerned. I think the administration owes us answers right away.”
This week, the Biden administration is trying to clear the air.
“We have gone through 5000-some-odd sightings. We have added detection capabilities to the region. We’ve even sent up visual observers and everything we’re seeing to date, our assessment tells us that these are commercial drones, hobbyist drones or law enforcement drones all operating legally and lawfully,” said John Kirby, White House National Security Communications Advisor.
Part of a joint statement from the Pentagon, FBI, Dept. of Homeland Security, and the FAA Tuesday morning reads: “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… That said, we recognize the concern among many communities. We continue to support state and local authorities with advanced detection technology and support of law enforcement.”
However, members on both sides of the aisle are not fully satisfied.
“Clearly, something is not right here. There’s a whole lot of people that have seen these with the naked eye,” said Langworthy. “We don’t know where they’re coming from. The administration has a lot of information at their fingertips and they’re not sharing it.”
“The people in New York and New Jersey have a lot of questions, still haven’t gotten answers from the feds,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D- NY) on the Senate Floor Tuesday.
Leader Schumer announced plans to move forward with legislation to make it easier for state and local law enforcement agencies to use equipment to detect unmanned aerial devices.
“Federal authorities agree that they can’t respond to these incidents alone and they need help from local authorities. But unfortunately, the local authorities do not have the authority right now, it’s only in the domain of the federal government,” said Schumer.
The Safeguarding the Homeland from the Threats Posed by Unmanned Aircraft Systems Act of 2023 was sponsored by Sen. Gary Peters (D- MI) last year. There is similar, companion legislation in the House.
“The worst part is that right now local officials have very little, in terms of resources and oversight authority, to do anything about these incidents. This afternoon, I will join Senator Peters to try and fix that,” said Schumer.
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers are calling on Speaker Mike Johnson (R- LA) and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D- NY) to include the companion legislation in the government funding bill which Congress is expected to pass before the holidays.
