As the mystery surrounding drones flying over New Jersey continues to grow, calls from confused residents to authorities about the flying machines are also increasing. Reports of drone sightings have spread from New Jersey to other states, including Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, Connecticut and Ohio.

Federal authorities reiterated on Sunday that the drones do not pose a security threat. But they still don’t know where they come from and who is responsible.

Meanwhile, some state and federal officials called on Congress to pass expanded legislation that would give federal agencies more resources to mitigate the risks posed by drones.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told ABC News: This week On Sunday, the U.S. government said the federal government had deployed additional resources, including personnel and technology, to help the New Jersey State Police combat drone sightings and that the Biden administration was “vigilant” in investigating the drone sightings “stay.

“There’s no question that people are seeing drones,” he added, but noted that some of the recent sightings on the East Coast were likely manned aircraft or double sightings.

He called on Congress to act quickly to expand and extend current counter-drone powers – approved in the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act of 2018 – which are set to expire on December 20. The law allows the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice to use advanced detection technologies to identify, track, and contain drones.

“It is critically important, as we have all been saying for several years, that we need additional authority from Congress to address the drone situation,” Mayorkas said in the ABC interview with George Stephanopoulos.

A joint congressional subcommittee hearing held last week focused on a bipartisan bill called the Counter-UAS Authority Security, Safety, and Reauthorization Act, which would expand federal counter-drone measures, such as strengthening the FAA’s oversight powers over drones .

The federal government is also sending a drone detection system to New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Sunday.

“I am grateful for the support, but we need more,” she said on are required to respond to the circumstances we are experiencing today.

Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, said on Fox News Sunday“A lot of us are pretty frustrated right now.”

“‘We don’t know’ is not a good enough answer,” he said, referring to a lack of information from federal authorities.

Drone activity disrupted air traffic in at least two states over the weekend. The runways at New York Stewart International Airport were closed for an hour Friday evening after the FAA reported drone sightings in the area, a spokesman confirmed.

In Ohio, there was a temporary closure of airspace over Wright Patterson Air Force Base between Friday night and Saturday morning after “small unmanned aerial systems were spotted near and over the base,” base spokesman Bob Purtiman told NPR member station WVXU.

During a phone call with reporters on Saturday, a Pentagon spokesman acknowledged that there had also been drone sightings over two military installations in New Jersey, at Picatinny Arsenal and Naval Weapons Station Earle, but said such sightings were typical.

“This is not a new issue for us,” the Joint Staff spokesman said, according to the Pentagon Intelligence Service. “We have had to deal with drone attacks over our bases for some time. We routinely respond to this in each individual case when it comes to reports.”

It is still unclear who is responsible for the drone activities

The military claimed over the weekend that there were no signs of foreign adversary involvement.

“To date, we have no intelligence information or observations that would indicate they were associated with a foreign actor or had malicious intent,” the Pentagon spokesman said. “But… we don’t know. We have not been able to locate or identify the operators or the places of origin.”

The spokesman also said that the drones frustrated the Defense Department, adding that the military has “limited authority” to conduct investigations outside military installations in the US and is also prohibited from conducting intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations, which could help determine the origin of the drones.

“We do not know what activity this is,” the Pentagon intelligence service quoted the spokesman as saying. “We don’t know… if it’s criminal. But I’m telling you it’s irresponsible.”