February 14, 2023: -On Thursday, the U.S. Senate held its initial public hearing on the Chinese spy balloon, which visibly offended. Lawmakers grilled four Defense Department officials regarding when the military learned of the balloon and the reason that they waited for a week to decrease.

“I don’t want a damn balloon going more than the United States when we could’ve taken it down over the Aleutian Islands,” stated Sen. Jon Tester, the Montana Democrat chairing the Appropriations Subcommittee that is making the hearing.

Officials stated the balloon first joined U.S. airspace off Alaska on January 28, where NORAD, the joint U.S.-Canadian air defence system, immediately detected it.

“As an Alaskan, I am so angry,” stated Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski. “Alaska is the initial line of protection for America. It’s like this administration does not think that Alaska is any portion of the rest of the country!” she said.

The witnesses are defending the Pentagon’s decision to let the high-altitude balloon float all over the U.S., fighting that the balloon’s primary importance to the U.S. military lay in what could be taking knowledge from its flight course and debris.

“A key area of the calculus for this mission was the ability to salvage, know and exploit the responsibilities of the high altitude balloon,” said Assistant Secretary of Defense Melissa Dalton.

“If we had taken it down regarding the state of Alaska, it would be a recovery operation,” she further said, noting that the deep, which freezes water of the Bering Sea “would make a recovery and salvage operations very dangerous.”

On Thursday, the hearing was part of a series of in-Congress events related to the spy balloon.

In the House, a resolution stating “the Chinese Communist Party’s use of a high-altitude surveillance balloon” has been passed unanimously, 419-0.

That vote occurred shortly after House members received a classified briefing regarding the balloon and the recovery efforts from defence and intelligence officials. Shortly before midday, the complete Senate was given its classified briefing on the balloon.

Differently in the Senate, the Foreign Relations Committee heard testimony starting from deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman, who stated that the spy balloon “put on complete display what we’ve long recognized, that the PRC has become more repressive at home more aggressive abroad.”