WASHINGTON — Three aerial objects were shot down over the U.S. and Canada within the last few days. These objects were detected just over a week after the U.S. military took down a suspected Chinese spy balloon.

Spectrum News spoke with Republican Congressman James Comer of Tompkinsville after the spy balloon was shot down near the coast of South Carolina. As chairman of the House Oversight & Accountability Committee, Comer said he has a lot of questions about the Biden administration’s decision-making process.

“We want to know when the Biden administration knew that this had entered American airspace,” Comer said. “We have already stated that the administration hasn’t secured our southern border. Now we are concerned that they haven’t secured our airspace.”

Republican Congressman Andy Barr of Lexington, who serves on the newly formed Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the U.S. and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), said he will “work to sanction the CCP military, surveillance and technology companies so that American investors are not unwittingly fueling the rise of CCP Companies like those responsible for incursions into U.S. airspace.”

In this photo provided by Chad Fish, the remnants of a large balloon drift above the Atlantic Ocean, just off the coast of South Carolina, with a fighter jet and its contrail seen below it, Feb. 4, 2023. (Chad Fish via AP, File)

Since the balloon was spotted, three more unidentified objects were shot down over North America.

“We have been more closely scrutinizing our airspace at these altitudes, including enhancing our radar, which may at least partly explain the increase in objects that we’ve detected over the past week,” said Melissa Dalton, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and hemispheric affairs.

Officials are working to learn more about all four of the objects.

“I’m looking forward to learning more from our military leaders about each incident and what information we are able to uncover from these objects,” said Republican Congressman Brett Guthrie of Bowling Green.

Congressman Morgan McGarvey of Louisville, Kentucky’s only Democrat in the delegation, said he too is “concerned by the lack of transparency surrounding the recent unidentified objects in our airways.”

“Open, honest communication is essential to trust between the American people and our government. I welcome any briefings from the Department of Defense on the issue,” McGarvey said.

The full U.S. Senate will receive a Tuesday morning briefing “on what we know and do not know about where these objects come from, and what threats, if any, they pose to the United States,” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the chamber floor Monday afternoon.

“Congress is going to conduct a careful bipartisan examination at these various incidents and also look into why U.S. authorities didn’t find these Chinese surveillance balloons sooner,” he added.