The Biden administration’s response to mounting public concern over alleged drone sightings in the northeast is dividing Democrats on Capitol Hill, where some lawmakers are defending the executive assurances that there’s no threat to public safety and others are bashing the various agencies for providing no proof to back those claims.
The reported sightings have captivated certain parts of the country over the last week, leaving top administration officials across a number of agencies scrambling to allay the fears of malicious intent.
But their vague assertions are cold comfort to some lawmakers, particularly those in affected regions like New Jersey, who are pressing the FBI, the Homeland Security Department and Federal Aviation Administration to air more details about the origin and objectives of the reported objects.
“It’s all about information and briefings, which has been my complete frustration,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) said. “I’ve asked the FBI and DHS to actually do a proper public briefing.”
Gottheimer is a member of the House Intelligence Committee, which is scheduled to be briefed by administration officials on Tuesday. But other lawmakers, who have already been briefed in a classified setting, said they agreed with the administration’s assessment that there’s no danger to public safety or national security.
“I think their assurances should be comforting, even though they haven’t given enough information as to the reason for the lack of transparency,” said Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), a member of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee. Lynch said his panel was briefed on the drone sightings last week, and he left the meeting satisfied.
“They’re in a difficult spot,” Lynch said.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is also defending the administration’s response. He said he’s been given “a preliminary briefing,” and expects a “deeper dive” later this week. Meanwhile, he said administration officials are doing the best they can in a difficult situation.
“We’re working through it,” Jeffries said. “They’re trying to be as transparent as they can.”
Rep. Rick Larsen (Wash.), the senior Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said the administration should do everything in its power to ease the public concerns. But he also wondered what sparked the spike in reported sightings, since many of the objects have since been identified as airplanes.
“If people still have questions, they should answer them,” Larsen said of the administration. “But on the other hand, a lot of these are manned — a lot of these are airplanes. And I don’t really understand what’s going on actually in New Jersey, or in Maryland, and why some people believe these are something different than what they have been before.”
The debate has arrived after days of mounting questions — and growing anxieties — surrounding a rash of reported sightings of unidentified flying objects, which began in New Jersey and spread to several other states. While many of those objects were later confirmed to be airplanes, misidentified as drones by untrained observers, federal officials have said others were, indeed, drones, and some were flying in places they shouldn’t have been. In Orange County, N.Y., officials were forced to close an airport last Friday because of “drone activity in the airspace,” according to a statement issued by Gov. Kathy Hochul.
In a Saturday briefing, officials from the FBI, DHS, FAA and Defense Department sought to downplay the concerns about the reported sightings, despite unanswered questions about what’s behind them.
“At this point, we have not identified any basis for believing … that there’s any criminal activity involved, that there’s any national security threat, that there’s any particular public safety threat, or that there’s a malicious foreign actor involved in these drones,” said a senior administration official on the weekend call.
“That said … all of the departments and agencies are taking this incredibly seriously and investigating every possible lead and working to try to understand what these sightings are.”
A DOD official confirmed sightings above two New Jersey military sites, but said the details were still unclear. “We don’t know what the activity is. We don’t know if it [is] malicious, if it is criminal, but I will tell you that it is irresponsible,” the official said.
An FBI official said that officials are “concerned” about the sightings “just as much as anybody else is,” but suggested “there has been a slight overreaction.”
On Monday, the same four agencies issued a statement saying they’ve seen nothing unusual as they respond to the reports and monitor the region’s airspace.
“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,” the statement read.
Such assurances have done little to assuage public concerns that something more nefarious is afoot. Those fears have been fueled by allegations from some Capitol Hill lawmakers that foreign adversaries are sending armies of drones over U.S. airspace to collect intelligence — or worse.
One Republican lawmaker, Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.), has alleged that Iran is behind the operation. “Iran launched a mothership that contains these drones,” Van Drew said last week in an interview with Fox News.
He did not provide evidence.
Such claims have led some Democrats to blame “irresponsible” elected officials for the attention and outcry surrounding the reported sightings. Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.), another member of the Intelligence Committee, is one lawmaker making that case.
“One of the challenges we’re facing is [that] some of our colleagues are being wildly irresponsible with the strange allegations they’re making,” Spanberger said.
“It’s always helpful to say why it is that we don’t think there should be any worry,” she continued. “But more importantly, we should demand a little bit more responsibility and professionalism from members of Congress whose voices carry some weight.”
The power to respond to drone threats lies largely with the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies, though that authority expires on Dec. 20.
That’s why some state leaders are both pressing Washington for help and asking for legislation to let state and local authorities use advanced detection and mitigation tech.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy told reporters on Monday that his office had been “pounding away for several weeks” at the Biden administration over the matter and obtained three “very sophisticated systems” in recent days, per audio obtained by The Hill.
The governor then urged Congress to take action on the expiring federal authorities and proposals to give states more authority on drones. He led another letter to congressional leaders last week, asking them to pass the “Safeguarding the Homeland from the Threats Posed by Unmanned Aircraft Systems Act of 2023.”
“It is extraordinary to me that a nation as great as ours and as powerful as ours has the deficiencies that we have now seen in living color as it relates to drone incursions. We have the technology, that’s for sure, but who’s got the authority?” Murphy said on Monday.
The Garden State governor also said he received a briefing Sunday night from an FBI Newark special agent and a team at the naval base in Colts Neck, N.J., to discuss the FBI’s investigation into the sightings.
“There is zero evidence, with all due respect … that the federal government or our military or someone knows what’s going on here, and they’re not admitting to it. I see zero evidence of that,” Murphy said.
Some lawmakers on Capitol Hill are also using the drone saga to press for legislation providing law enforcers with more authority to track and police unmanned aircraft systems, known as UAS.
“To the extent that they’re a threat, we have some tools to deal with that, but also we need to pass a permanent authorization of the counter-UAS authorities,” Larsen said. “That would change and extend the authorities of our law enforcement agencies so that these kinds of issues that are coming up in New Jersey and the East Coast could be dealt with.”
Meanwhile, Gottheimer has set up a portal on his website allowing people to report sightings directly to his office, which he said he’ll then pass along to the intelligence community.
“Because right now it’s just kind of the wild west of reporting,” said Gottheimer, who is running to become New Jersey’s next governor.
“You can’t tell people they’re not seeing what they’re seeing, right?” he continued. “And that’s been my frustration.”
