Noem Backs Broader Counter-Drone Powers as Debate Drags on Hill

Congress must expand federal powers to ensure the Department of Homeland Security can combat dangerous drones, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said, providing a key endorsement in a policy battle that has spanned years.

“The expansion of those authorities needs to be looked at to make sure it’s appropriate but also gives us the tools we need to keep people safe,” Noem testified Tuesday before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Legal authority for DHS and the Justice Department to take down threatening drones has received short-term extensions for years and is on the verge of expiration again at the end of September — even as drone threats multiply along the border, around airports, and at mass gatherings such as football games.

A long-term renewal has stalled while lawmakers debate costs to taxpayers and whether takedown power can be expanded to include select state and local government agencies without infringing on civil liberties and privacy rights.

DHS pressed Congress to extend counter-drone authorities earlier this year, but Noem’s comments mark the most direct endorsement to date from a Trump official, though she didn’t air support for a specific legislative approach.

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“We do need to reauthorize the authorities that we do have in order to address not just our homeland security day-to-day activities, but we’re hosting some very large events in this country that will challenge our ability to secure that many large events at one time,” she told Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), citing the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Summer Olympics.

Growing Threat

Noem’s testimony coincided with a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on combating drone threats, where Texas and Florida law enforcement officials and other witnesses shared concerns about rising threats from drones and urged Congress to give them the power to take action to intercept dangerous devices.

“There’s very little our state and local law enforcement officials can do about them, and that needs to change,” Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said, adding that drone and counter-drone industry players have been pushing for clear rules.

Sports leagues, correctional facility operators, border officials, and local police have supported legislative efforts to expand authorities. One counter-drone executive highlighted that push during a technology demonstration in Reston, Va., last week.

“The federal forces can only be in so many places,” Jeffrey Starr, chief marketing officer for the counter-drone company D-Fend Solutions, said in an interview with Bloomberg Government.

The company has had contracts with US Customs and Border Protection, the Secret Service, and other agencies, according to government contracting records.

Potential drone threats gained attention last year amid a surge of reported sightings in New Jersey, though government agencies determined many sightings were mistaken and legitimate devices weren’t malicious. The shooter who shot then-presidential candidate Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania last year also used a drone to survey the area before the attack.

Expansion Concerns

Georgetown Law professor Laura Donohue, testifying before Senate Judiciary, urged lawmakers to ensure any expansion legislation isn’t a “blank check” for government agencies to intercept data in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

HSGAC Chairman Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has raised similar concerns about the scope of federal power to take down drones. He cited a separate complaint during Tuesday’s hearing with Noem, questioning the federal government’s role in protecting private events such as large sports games.

“I’m one holding up these authorizations and I’ll let them go forward, but I want people to pay,” Paul said, referring to sports leagues. “It’s ridiculous that the average taxpayer who could never afford to go to an NFL Super Bowl has got to pay for their security.”

Peters last year hurried efforts to expand counter-drone authorities after the New Jersey sightings as then-chairman of HSGAC, but Paul blocked the effort.

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