{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=413450", "Washington Times article on Smith, other fed officials' concerns:'New Jersey drones stump FBI; lawmakers furious at federal inaction'", "2024-12-10", "2024", "2024-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Stephen Dinan and Tom Howell Jr. - The Washington Times - Tuesday, December 10, 2024\n\nU.S. officials are not sure what to make of the swarms of drones flying over New Jersey in recent weeks, sparking outrage from lawmakers who said it makes the government look incompetent.\n\nThose lawmakers decried the lack of answers \u2014 and lack of action.\n\n\u201cWe can bring one down tomorrow,\u201d said Rep. Christopher Smith, New Jersey Republican.\n\nRobert Wheeler Jr., who runs the FBI\u2019s critical incident response group, said no evidence suggests nefarious motives, but he hasn\u2019t ruled that out.\n\n\u201cIt is concerning,\u201d he told the House Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday.\n\nHe said the public has provided more than 3,000 tips, and reports are everywhere.\n\nSome drones have been fixed-wing aircraft, and others are rotary. Some are larger than the typical commercially available size.\n\nNew Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, called the drones \u201csophisticated\u201d and said they \u201cgo dark\u201d once detected.\n\nThe drones were spotted in the general area of Picatinny Arsenal, an Army research complex, and President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s home at Bedminster.\n\n\u201cWhy are we not taking action?\u201d Rep. August Pfluger, the Texas Republican who convened Tuesday\u2019s hearing on drone dangers, demanded of FBI and Justice Department officials.\n\nMr. Wheeler offered a bureaucratically intricate response. He said \u201cauthority exists to mitigate\u201d a drone while in flight, but he didn\u2019t explain why it hasn\u2019t happened.\n\nAt the White House, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Biden knew of the New Jersey drones, but she would not comment further.\n\nRep. Anthony D\u2019Esposito, New York Republican, said the lack of answers has become an embarrassment.\n\n\u201cThe fact that we continue to say we don\u2019t know what they are, we don\u2019t know what they\u2019re doing \u2014 the American people are looking at us and think we\u2019re lying to them because they think, \u2018How could you not have answers to drones flying over some of the most critical airspace in the country?\u2019\u201d he said.\n\nMr. Smith said he was visiting authorities on Monday. One sheriff said a deputy spotted 50 drones flying over the shore on a recent night. A Coast Guard officer said one of his boats was followed by \u201cbetween 12 and 30 of these drones.\u201d\n\nPaul Schwennesen, co-director of the Global Strategy Decisions Group, said he thinks authorities are \u201cfrozen with fear\u201d of the ramifications from collateral damage of taking down a drone, such as debris hitting a house.\n\n\u201cPeople are acting out of a sense of self-restraint here, which is being promoted by our policy environment,\u201d he told lawmakers.\n\nExperts noted threats elsewhere.\n\nHe said the risk is \u201cincreasingly rapidly.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re already seeing drug cartels in Mexico use drones to attack the military, police and their rivals,\u201d Mr. Jones said.\n\nHe said those are potential dangers to the U.S. but the more current threats are smuggling operations that use drones as surveillance platforms. They track U.S. assets and spot holes in defenses so they know when to send high-risk contraband across the border.\n\nDrone flights have disrupted operations at U.S. airports and sporting events.\n\nLawmakers seemed comfortable with the federal government\u2019s existing powers to track and destroy drones, though they said that authority must be extended and enhanced.\n\nThey said the bigger policy holes are at the state and local levels, where most drone incidents are handled.\n\nThis article was published on Dec. 10, 2024 and can be found online at:\n\nNew Jersey drones stump FBI; lawmakers furious at federal inaction - Washington Times\n\nhttps://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/dec/10/new-jersey-drones-stump-fbi-lawmakers-furious-fede/?utm_source=Boomtrain&utm_medium=manual&utm_term=newsletter&utm_content=standard&utm_campaign=morning&bt_ee=w58vP0aUx6OyCxpx2%2BeQ73OR39%2Fu%2By%2FD6nYxshD5rxV4LfKKlwH1CBve8pEBe2uw&bt_ts=1733922620821", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T22:13:55Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=413450"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9446996264159679, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}