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Congress in 2018 expanded authority of the Justice Department
and the Department of Homeland Security to disable or destroy
threatening drones, which are formally known as unmanned
aircraft systems (UAS). But the Biden administration says
Congress needs to renew existing authority and expand its powers
as the number of registered drones jumps. Those 2018 drone
authorities are set to expire in October.
The Biden administration wants to extend drone detection and
destruction powers to agencies like the CIA and State Department
to protect U.S. facilities as officials say drones are costing
millions of dollars in delays at U.S airports.
Senator Gary Peters, a Democrat who chairs the Homeland Security
Committee, said at a hearing on Thursday he plans to release
proposed legislation in the coming weeks to extend existing
authority and "strengthen counter-UAS authorities to better
tackle this threat."
On Thursday, the National Football League, Major League
Baseball, NCAA and NASCAR sent a joint letter to Congress
backing the Biden administration proposal, saying expansion of
drone authority "will play an important role in helping to
ensure the safety of major sporting events, including the safety
of the millions of American fans who attend these events each
year."
Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brad Wiegmann told the Senate
on Thursday that "outdoor mass gatherings, like open-air sports
stadiums, are particularly vulnerable to drone attacks."
The White House wants to extend powers to detect and destroy or
disable threatening drones to the Transportation Security
Administration (TSA) for airports and the U.S. Marshals Service
for prisoner transports.
DHS official Samantha Vinograd said TSA since 2021 "has reported
nearly 2,000 drone sightings near U.S. airports, including
incursions at major airports nearly every day."
She added that "since 2019, drone incidents have caused U.S.
airports to fully halt operations three times, and in 2021, over
30 partial suspensions of operations - resulting in millions of
dollars of economic damage."
The sports leagues praised the Biden plan to "implement a pilot
program extending counter-drone authority, under appropriate
oversight and training, to certain state and local law
enforcement officials involved in protecting mass gatherings at
sporting events."
White House Homeland Security Adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall said
the Biden proposal will "be groundbreaking in improving our
defenses against the exploitation of UAS for inappropriate or
dangerous purposes."
There are over 800,000 registered drones in the United States.
The FBI has conducted 70 drone and counter-drone protection
operations at large events like the Super Bowl since 2018.
During those operations, "FBI’s counter-UAS teams detected 974
unauthorized drones operating in flight restricted areas,
located the operator in 279 instances, and attempted mitigation
against 50 drones."
(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Matthew
Lewis)
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