House Intel members downplay drone risks, call for legislation

House Intelligence Committee members sought to ease public worries Tuesday about drone sightings following a briefing, echoing law enforcement statements that there is nothing nefarious behind the activity even as some called for legislation to address the matter. 

Lawmakers on the panel met for more than two hours with 28 briefers from a slew of government agencies, including the FBI, the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). 

“No. 1, we spent a lot of time in this hearing asking the question in every way imaginable as to whether or not any of these sightings in New Jersey, Connecticut — anywhere they're being sighted — are federal government operations, and they are not. We were assured, and we asked this question over and over and over again,” Rep. Jim Himes (Conn.), the top Democrat on the panel, told reporters as he exited the briefing. 

“No. 2, they remain committed to their message that there is zero evidence of laws being broken by any of these drones.”

Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) likewise shared there does not appear to be any nefarious activity.

“I think that the message for the American people is that a lot of people from a lot of different organizations at the federal level are taking this very, very seriously. To date, they haven't found anything that would indicate that there's foreign influence, foreign actors, or even little green men who are working on the American people,” she said.

“It’s really important for the American people to know that as far as all of the organizations are concerned, there is no evident threat coming from any place.”

The meeting comes after a joint statement from the FBI, DHS and the Department of Defense Monday night asserting the sightings were a mix of drones and aircraft that don't present a public safety concern.

“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,” they said.

“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.”

Still, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle aired criticism, asking for more information.

Rep. Darin LaHood (R-Ill.) said the Biden administration has “projected no confidence” as people are turning to the White House to assuage concerns.

“It's astonishing to me that the Biden administration cannot get their arms around this. I think it's embarrassing for the country, and I think it falls into a pattern,” he told The Hill. 

“We don't have an administration that can articulate or give reassurance to the American people on it. So it's extremely frustrating, and I put the blame on the Biden administration and terrible PR mismanagement, not being forthright with the American people, and not giving more clear and definitive answers to things today.”

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), another House Intelligence Committee member, said he is still looking for more information underlying the conclusion that the sightings are a constellation of drones, airplanes and even stars.

“Show us the data; show us how it's manned aircraft. That's kind of my request of the government, and hopefully they do that. I think that the public needs to understand and see for themselves what these government officials have concluded,” he said.

Numerous lawmakers said the episode highlights the need for legislation.

Houlahan has sponsored a bill to reauthorize powers otherwise set to expire at the end of the week that allow various agencies to intercept drones.

It also seeks to boost counterdrone coordination efforts among various law enforcement agencies.

“We have some work to be done here in the legislative body to make sure that people have the authorities to be able to respond to this and the technologies to be able to respond to things like this,” Houlahan said.

“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 authorities and the permissions that different organizations need to have, hopefully we'll be able to have less of a worry concerning this.”

Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.) also called for more expansive drone monitoring.

“We do know that there are more drones that people are buying — hobbyists, companies that are using them to deliver packages. Again, I think we have to legislatively come up with the ability to be able to track those drones with some regular frequency,” he said.