{"id":16051,"date":"2025-11-27T02:01:37","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T02:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/white-house-presses-congress-for-drone-powers-ahead-of-world-cup-olympics\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T02:01:37","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T02:01:37","slug":"white-house-presses-congress-for-drone-powers-ahead-of-world-cup-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/white-house-presses-congress-for-drone-powers-ahead-of-world-cup-olympics\/","title":{"rendered":"White House presses Congress for drone powers ahead of World Cup, Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The White House is pressing lawmakers to give the administration more power to take down aerial drones in domestic airspace in advance of the U.S. hosting the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympic games, according to three people involved in ongoing negotiations.<\/p>\n

The push to attach the measure to a must-pass defense policy bill in the coming weeks is facing resistance from Sen. Ted Cruz, who chairs a committee with jurisdiction over aviation policy and sees it as federal overreach.<\/p>\n

Draft legislation floated by the White House<\/u><\/a> and obtained by Blue Light News would give agencies including the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice new authority to take counter-drone measures for \u201clarge scale public gatherings or events, critical infrastructure or correctional facilities.\u201d The proposal would also broaden \u201ccounter-drone authority\u201d for state and local law enforcement.<\/p>\n

Under current law, federal agencies are empowered to intervene against drone threats only when specific, high-risk facilities, including government operations and power plants, are deemed to be at risk.<\/p>\n

The push comes as the leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees are trying to finalize the text of the defense bill by early next week. Spokespeople for the Republican chairs and top Democrats on the committees did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

The White House request of Congress is the administration\u2019s latest move to ramp up security ahead of the World Cup and Olympic games. The administration announced earlier this month it was launching a $500 million program<\/u><\/a> to help state and local governments develop anti-drone strategies ahead of the events as well as any celebrations that might take place around the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an important issue we must address as we prepare for global events such as the World Cup and the Olympics, and we need to ensure proper authorities are in place to protect the American people,\u201d said a House GOP leadership aide granted anonymity to discuss the negotiations.<\/p>\n

A White House official granted anonymity to describe ongoing deliberations said the White House Office of Legislative Affairs has been working on legislative language and circulating related proposals among congressional offices since September. The administration has been working closely with Speaker Mike Johnson\u2019s office on the legislative draft and has also engaged with Senate Majority Leader John Thune\u2019s office, according to the official.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something that the admin feels is extremely important given particularly all of the events of the next year,\u201d the White House official said. \u201cHaving a strong strong event infrastructure and drone counter-measures is very important.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear if Congress will adopt the plan, with Cruz \u2013 a key voice on aviation policy because of his chairmanship of Senate Commerce \u2013 viewing it as an \u201cextremely problematic\u201d power grab that would give federal security officials too much leeway in determining how best to \u201cprotect the public,\u201d according to a person granted anonymity to discuss the private negotiations.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Senate Commerce declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Sen. Eric Schmitt, a Missouri Republican on Senate Commerce, is supporting tougher counter-drone legislation. Kansas City, Mo., is scheduled to host six World Cup matches next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnauthorized drones pose a clear risk to Americans and our homeland, and it\u2019s time Congress acts and shows more urgency,\u201d Schmitt spokesperson Rachel Dumke said in a statement. \u201cSenator Schmitt looks forward to continuing to work with his colleagues to find a path forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The White House is pressing lawmakers to give the administration more power to take down aerial drones in domestic airspace in advance of the U.S. hosting the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympic games, according to three people involved in ongoing negotiations. The push to attach the measure to a must-pass defense policy bill in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16051\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}