After briefing, Intelligence panelists confident skies are safe

Mark Satter, CQ-Roll Call on Dec 17, 2024

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WASHINGTON — Members of the House Intelligence Committee left a classified briefing on Tuesday largely satisfied that there was nothing nefarious behind the recent uptick in alleged drone sightings over New Jersey that have sparked concerns and speculation from the press, social media users, Congress and the president-elect in recent weeks.

Committee ranking member Jim Himes, D-Conn., told reporters following the briefing that there was zero evidence of any laws being broken by the alleged drones, and that government officials assured lawmakers there were no federal operations taking place over the New Jersey area.

“There are 800,000 registered drones in this country, and then millions and millions of unregistered drones. And so some combination of those things, and stars and Starlink satellites probably account for the vast majority of what people are seeing,” Himes said.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., said the briefing gave members a full sense that there was no threat to public safety.

The three-hour briefing, led by 28 officials who represented the departments of Defense, Justice and Homeland Security, the FBI and the intelligence community, was the latest in a monthlong saga that has stumped local law enforcement and prompted lawmakers to call for more transparency and to introduce legislation.

On Monday, President-elect Donald Trump hinted that the government may know more about the station than officials were letting on.

“The government knows what is happening,” Trump said during a news conference. “For some reason, they don’t want to comment. And I think they’d be better off saying what it is our military knows and our president knows.”

White House officials have maintained there is no national security threat stemming from the alleged drones, and that most of the sightings can be explained by manned aircraft, hobbyist drones, satellites and stars, among other common phenomena.

Emerging from the briefing, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., who is also a member of the House Armed Services Committee, panned some of her fellow lawmakers and the media for “scaring the public” by furthering the drone story, but also said that the incident was an opportunity for Congress to renew legislation that would help address such situations in the future.

“We have some work to be done to make sure that people have the authorities and the technologies to be able to respond to this. There’s only going to be more drones in our airspace this Christmas. There will be more drones under people’s trees — but once we have the permissions that different organizations need, hopefully we’ll be able to have less of a worry concerning this,” Houlahan said.

On Monday, Houlahan and Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., sent a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., pressing for the inclusion of bicameral counter-drone legislation in the continuing resolution.

The language would reauthorize existing DOJ and DHS permissions to detect and mitigate drone threats — including threats to so-called critical infrastructure like airports and stadiums. It would also allow a select number of state and local law enforcement to mitigate drone threats.

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