Planes, stars and hobbyists: Lawmakers insist nothing ‘nefarious’ is happening in NJ skies

Lawmakers exiting a classified briefing with U.S. intelligence officials insisted they received assurances nothing "nefarious" is going on with the recent uptick in drone sightings in New Jersey. 

On Tuesday, U.S. officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of Homeland Security and Defense Department privately briefed members of the House Intelligence Committee in an effort to assuage growing fears over sightings of unmanned aircraft systems and fresh calls for federal action.

"There's no evidence that anybody acted unlawfully here or that any of these drones, in as much as the authorities know anything about them, are associated with anybody with malign intent," Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., ranking member of the committee, told reporters after the briefing.

"I don't think we have any reason to believe that they are hiding information. And, again, we asked an extraordinarily detailed series of questions of 28 people over a period of three hours." 

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But the uptick in alleged drone sightings along the East Coast has touched off panicked calls for an investigation from residents and state lawmakers. The FBI has received more than 6,000 tips from the public on mysterious drone sightings. 

One theory can definitively be ruled out, according to Himes. The drones are not the work of a classified government operation, he said. 

"We asked this question over and over and over again," he said, "They are not [linked to the U.S. government]. We were assured." 

Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder stressed to reporters that the drones seen along the East Coast are not a DOD asset.  

Instead, the running theory among U.S. officials seems to be that there is no one reason behind the phenomenon, and many of the sightings called in to law enforcement are planes, helicopters or hobbyist drones operating lawfully. 

"There is no evident threat coming from any place. These are just traditional planes, drones, stars, private planes — all the things that are typically in our skies," said Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa.

Rep. Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican and outspoken critic of the Biden administration’s response to the drones, told Fox News Digital in an interview Tuesday he plans to introduce legislation as early as this week that would allow state police to better handle the drone threat, including tracking the unmanned aircraft and, if necessary, taking them down.

But Smith said Tuesday he sees the bill as a "very real extension of a capability that is needed right now" in the U.S. defense space.

"There's more vulnerability here that anyone wants to accept, but we need to take action — decisive action," Smith said.

On Friday, government agencies will lose their counter-drone authority without an FAA reauthorization from Congress. An extension of that authority is expected to be included in spending legislation to keep the government open, but security-minded lawmakers are pushing for more extensive reform to grant state and local law enforcement the authority to intercept and identify drones and equip them with radar detection capabilities.

"We got a lot of answers. Quite frankly, the technology of drones has outpaced the law," said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill. "We have to work in a bipartisan manner to plug some holes within the law in terms of who is allowed to operate drones in what manner and how do you disable or deal with drones in improper airspace."

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On Monday, the DHS, FBI, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Pentagon issued a joint statement noting that while they "recognize the concern" from the public, there is no evidence that the drones are "anomalous" or a threat to national security.

The drone complaints began pouring in last month in New Jersey, where witnesses and residents first began reporting drone sightings off of coastal areas, including off of Cape May, a scenic town roughly 50 miles south of Atlantic City along the Jersey Shore. 

More recently, lawmakers in New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Maryland have reported new drone sightings in their home states, with some witnesses claiming the aircraft in question have been the "size of cars" or seen flying above sensitive infrastructure or in restricted airspace. 

Krishnamoorthi insisted he was "satisfied" with the answers he got from the briefing but that the government needs to do more to assuage the concerns of the public. 

"The public needs to see for themselves what these government officials have concluded and the technology that's been used."