Tim Kennedy Warns Of Foreign Nationals Using Drones To Smuggle Narcotics Across The U.S. Border

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During a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Tuesday, Rep. Tim Kennedy (D-NY) warned of drones being used to smuggle narcotics across the U.S. border.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Chairman. And I want to thank you and Ranking Member MacGyver for holding this

00:07important hearing today. Up in New York, we have had many conversations about the impact

00:17on drones, both positive for the communities across our state, as well as the potential

00:26threats that are coming with the drones, in many ways, in curgence into airspace. We know

00:40last year the worry, the concern, and the fright that it caused up in the Northeast, whether

00:50it be New York, New Jersey. And I'd like to know, especially being along the Canadian border,

00:57my district, the 26th, New York, Buffalo, Niagara region, I have four bridges into Canada in

01:04my district. We are also aware that many of these foreign nationalists have used drones,

01:14when I say negative, to smuggle narcotics across the border. It is part of their network.

01:23How do we balance, as a government, the positive influence of drones in our lives, in the technology

01:36that society can benefit from, to the real negatives that an oversaturation of drones

01:47is bringing into our society?

01:54I appreciate that question. And I think it goes back to what we were discussing earlier.

02:00And I appreciate the Congressman's question about potentially moving, you know, everybody

02:06indoors for safety and protecting against that capability. But one of the things that you

02:11pointed out is very, is probably the most critical point here. And that is, we have both good and

02:17bad actors in the air. And right now, we can't identify which is which. Whether they're flying

02:22over a bridge for appropriate purposes, not flying, flying across the border for appropriate purposes,

02:27not flying, we have to start there. We have to start by having an awareness and seeing our airspace.

02:32The NFL, for example, has reported a 4,000% increase. And I know you pointed out that there's 10 stadiums.

02:38Ironically enough, there's 22 others. And they're mostly better, better teams, which I don't know if that

02:43has anything to do with being indoors or outdoors. But so we have to be able to identify what's operating

02:50in that airspace, be able to control and protect and restrict those operators from flying in those areas

02:56that we don't want. And then and only then should we be able to effectively initiate, you know,

03:02whether it's electronic or kinetic countermeasures. And I think that's where we have to start. And I

03:06think that fixes the problem. It also establishes public trust. Back to the ranking member's question

03:11about what happened in New Jersey. The bigger issue there, I think we all know it turns out what was

03:16there was if it were drones was authorized. But we didn't know that at the time. And we probably should

03:21have known that at the time. And so I want to just continue to reemphasize that we need to

03:28understand what's happening. We need an integrated airspace management. We need to be able to be

03:33comfortable. You as regulators, policymakers, our Americans as a general public and first responders

03:39and law enforcement. Thank you, Mr. Walker. And thank you all for being here and your testimony. But

03:46Mr. Walker, thank you for taking that question head on. As a leader in the industry, what are your

03:52thoughts on it? How does the industry suggest that we regulate your own industry to make it safer and

04:04to prevent these bad actors from doing harm to our communities?

04:09Well, the industry is working, I think, aggressively to both grow the industry and

04:17create systems, technologies, and our own individual policies at the operator level that protect the

04:22general public. But we're operating in silos. We're fragmented and we're awaiting a set of standards that

04:28we can mutually agree upon that both grant policies for how we operate and then regulatory authorities for

04:35how we leverage the systems that we've created. I think it's important, and I think Mr. Robbins said

04:40it earlier, I think everybody up here on this, you know, that's witnessing now, the technologies exist.

04:46This is not a technology problem. We keep talking about it as though, how do we solve this problem?

04:51We solve this problem by getting a congressional mandate, getting funding, and allow for innovative

04:57development programs to start testing these solutions. They've been around. And so, how do we do it?

05:04The industry is ready to come together. I know we are. I know everyone else in our industry is.

05:09We just need direction. We need authority, and we need funding.

05:13If I can add to that, sir, the issue is, like we said, the technology is there, and there is safe

05:19technology. The FAA has been testing and evaluating counter-UAS technology since 2019.

05:25Every one of our vendors, every one of the industry members, have to go through several levels of test and

05:31evaluation at every agency, every department, and every component. It's a burden on the industry to

05:36have to do that because the government can't share that information. But regardless, there are safe

05:41technologies out there that can detect, track, identify, and monitor airspace and give us air

05:46domain awareness, and it can be layered. Thank you. I yield back.

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