Senate to act on drone-tracking bill empowering state, local authorities

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) says the Senate will act Wednesday on a bipartisan bill to provide authority and resources for state and local authorities to track mysterious drones that have been spotted over New Jersey, New York and other states, causing a national uproar.

Schumer, speaking on the Senate floor, said federal authorities don’t have enough personnel and resources to track all of the drones that have been sighted hovering above towns in the Northeast.

“The utter confusion surrounding these drone sightings shows that the feds can’t respond all on their own. The federal government needs help from local officials detecting these drones,” he said.

He said the bill, which he co-sponsored with Senate Homeland Security Committee Gary Peters (D-Mich.), would allow local law enforcement agencies to work more closely with the Defense Department and Federal Aviation Administration to track the drones.

“This afternoon I will come to the Senate floor to stand with Sen. Peters to take up legislation to respond to the recent reports of unusual drone activity. I am proud to cosponsor this bipartisan legislation, which the FBI, DHS, DOD and FAA all support,” Schumer announced on the floor, referring to the federal departments and agencies charged with securing the nation’s airspace.

“The Senate should pass our bill without delay,” he said.

Schumer explained the legislation would explicitly authorize state and local authorities to conduct drone detection and help them better coordinate with federal law enforcement agencies.

“The federal government needs help from local officials detecting these drones. But right now the locals have neither the authority or resources to act. Our bill will fix that. All the federal agencies involved say they need local help,” he said.

Schumer said the drones are “all over the place,” posing a serious challenge to policymakers and law enforcement agencies.

“You don’t want to tell people they can’t fly drones for recreational use, and many other commercial uses. So, it’s a difficult area, and we don’t have broad-reaching federal legislation … on drones, even though we do say they can’t be near airports and be near military facilities,” he said.

President Biden told reporters this week that his administration is “checking” out the drone activity but asserted the unidentified aerial vehicles are “nothing nefarious apparently” and don’t pose a danger.

President-elect Trump has accused the Biden administration of hiding what it knows from the public, and suggested shooting the drones down, a move that experts say would pose its own public safety risks.

The FBI has received tips of more than 5,000 reported drone sightings in recent weeks and the federal government is supporting state and local officials in investigating some of the reports.

The Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the FAA and the Department of Defense issued a statement earlier this week describing the sightings to date as 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.”

But some lawmakers on Capitol Hill haven’t felt reassured by those statements.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) has floated the possibility that the drones may be operated by the nation’s adversaries — Russia, China and Iran — or even come from outer space.

“My concern is, if it’s not craft from outer space — because I think that has to be on the table. That has to be an option — is it our technology? Or is it Russia or Iran or China? Is there someone who’s winning the arms race, and are we behind?” Mace said in an interview on Outkick.

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