Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) on Tuesday warned of the “real issues” Congress must address regarding drone safety following a classified House Intelligence Committee conference regarding mysterious sightings.
“I think it would be inaccurate for the Biden administration to say they are confident there is. [sic] “No problem. I'm not absolutely sure,” Crenshaw told Fox News anchor Martha McCallum on “The Story” Tuesday. Now, remember, before many of them were rated as just airplanes, manned aircraft, things like that…satellites, there were about 6,000 of them. And they're investigating all of that. ”
As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, Crenshaw stressed that one of the “biggest problems” in addressing drone security is the lack of a clear “legal framework.”
The map shows the various locations where mysterious drones were spotted in the northeastern United States in December 2024. (Fox News)
“In 2017 and 2018, we have given the federal government authority to detect and mitigate drone activity across the United States, but that tends to be quite limited,” Crenshaw said. “So the DOJ has the authority, the DOD has the authority, the DOE (Department of Energy) has the authority, the DHS has some authority. But all of these authorities, for example, have very limited authority over government facilities. So, depending on the government facility, you may actually face criminal charges for shooting down a drone over its sky. No. So this is a real issue that we have to resolve in Congress. ”
Crenshaw noted that several bills have been introduced in Congress to address this issue and said he believes they will “get a lot more attention” in the future.
“There's probably no real criminal penalty for people flying drones without permission or flying drones in airspace they shouldn't be in. There's no legal framework to address this,” Crenshaw said. Ta. “And from what I understand, there's just no lead agency. There's no 911 button where you can call and say, okay, these guys are coming to deal with the drones. But… You deal with the drones, shoot them down, capture them, use jamming signals, but it's not obvious to the people actually in charge of it, and the state and local governments don't actually deal with it either. I don't have the ability or authority to do so.”
“I think that's why there's this understandable uproar among the American people, because everyone's like, 'Wait, who do I ask for this?'” he added.
DHS, FBI, FAA, and DOD issued a joint statement Monday ahead of a meeting with lawmakers regarding recent drone sightings.
Drone spotted in northeast likely came from 'within the US', military expert says
The federal agency said in a statement that unexplained sightings so far include “a combination of legal commercial, hobbyist, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft that have been falsely reported as drones; He explained that it includes a combination of helicopters and stellar aircraft.
Officials also said they have not identified anything “unusual” in civil airspace in New Jersey or other parts of the Northeast that poses a risk to national security or public safety, calling previous activity ” “I haven't evaluated it,” he said.
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The statement also said the number of “visual sightings” of drones over military installations in New Jersey and elsewhere, including restricted airspace, has been “limited.” But officials also reassured that such sightings near and over Pentagon facilities are “not new.”
