WASHINGTON, D.C. –– This week, House Committee on Homeland Security Republicans spotlighted congressional resources and oversight that helped prepare for the 2026 FIFA World Cup as federal, state, and local law enforcement, along with private sector pa…
WASHINGTON, D.C. –– This week, House Committee on Homeland Security Republicans spotlighted congressional resources and oversight that helped prepare for the 2026 FIFA World Cup as federal, state, and local law enforcement, along with private sector partners, work around the clock to ensure the safety of Americans and international visitors.
Congress and the Trump administration have been preparing for a historic slate of mass-gathering events on U.S. soil for more than a year. Last year, House Homeland Republicans secured $625 million for FIFA World Cup security preparations and $500 million to support state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement in developing their ability to detect, identify, track, and monitor drone threats through the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” The Homeland Security Committee also coordinated closely with other House Committees, Senate Committees, Congressional leadership, and the Trump administration to expand counter-drone authorities for qualifying state and local law enforcement partners in the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Despite repeated partisan shutdowns of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over the last year, House Republicans passed the “Secure America Act” this month to ensure all DHS components have the resources needed to carry out their missions effectively amid these events.
On how Congress helped prepare law enforcement for this historic event, Subcommittee Chairman Guest said:
“We have [events] going on across the United States in 11 different host cities… So that creates challenges as we are trying to protect those 11 sites… I’ll tell you that I believe that the men and women of our federal, state, and local law enforcement––they are up to the task. This planning has been going into place for these events now for well over a year. The federal government has allocated somewhere between $800 million and $1 billion for our local and state partners for additional manpower, equipment, [and] anti-drone detection technology… I’m proud of what our law enforcement has been able to do, the work of the FBI, the work of DHS, the work of FEMA, and again, the work of our local partners to secure these 11 sites across the country.”
On the unique security challenges presented by the FIFA World Cup, Subcommittee Chairman Guest said:
“On the threat matrix landscape, we are probably at the highest level that we have seen probably since 9/11. And look, 9/11 was a failure of the collection of information, the analyzing of that information, and then acting upon that… You talk about nation-states such as Iran… There is not peace between the two nations. You talk about China and, particularly, their cyber technology. I think that’s one thing that, as we look at what do we need to do going forward to harden America against future attacks, I think cyber needs to be the area that we need to continue to focus on. We know that China has a robust… cyber ability, that Iran, North Korea are seeking to develop cyber capacities… Many of these terrorist organizations are also trying to build out cyber as part of their offensive network. So, we’ve got to make sure that we are hardening our defenses and also that we know that we have offensive capabilities and, when necessary, we should use our cyber offensive capabilities if we believe that an attack is imminent.”
Rep. Gabe Evans (R-CO) joined SiriusXM POTUS’s “Julie Mason Show.”
On the security successes of the World Cup so far, Rep. Evans said:
“I was a cop for 10 years, and we always talk about how law enforcement should be transparent to society, which generally is a good thing. It can be a bad thing when people figure that society is just naturally safe, and they don’t see all of the time and effort and resources and hours that go into making society safe. But it’s really a credit to a lot of the work that was done in Congress to resource all of our homeland security agencies in preparation for the World Cup [and] the 250th birthday of the country. We’ve got the 2028 Summer Olympics coming up. And so, Congress and the One Big Beautiful Bill, in the Working Families Tax Cut, we gave hundreds of millions to billions of dollars to all of the appropriate Homeland Security agencies at the federal level. And then we made a lot more resources available to state and local law enforcement just to make sure that everybody is equipped, trained, prepared, and has exactly what they need to keep us safe. And in terms of, you know, [attacks] not happening, we’ve actually seized over 50 drones already from potential threats to some of these major events. So, the fact that we have the ability to interdict those and seize those before anything bad happens; that’s just indicative of the good work that our law enforcement agencies are doing to be able to identify and interdict these threats before people can actually go deploy, you know, in this case, 50 potentially malicious drones.”
On evolving threats from drone warfare, Rep. Evans said:
“Ten years ago, if you were going to go attack a major event, you know, we saw it in 9/11, that the best way to go attack a major event was to do it with airplanes… Now, with the prevalence of drones, you can go do bad things with a drone for a couple hundred bucks and a little bit of creativity… In addition to being a cop for 10 years, I was in the Army for 12. Most of that as a helicopter pilot. We operate at zero to 3,000 feet; most of the time above ground level. So, helicopters and drones are in the same airspace, that lower level to the ground airspace. And so being able to equip our federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies with not only the legal authority to be able to protect in three dimensions of space, but also the technology to then be able to take down a potentially malicious drone if a malicious actor or a suspicious actor is able to get that up and get that into the air over a densely populated venue. Those are all things that are rapidly emerging and changing, and we have to have the technology and the legal authority to be able to protect in situations like that against these potentially homegrown or radically inspired malicious actors.”
On the threat landscape facing mass-gathering events like the World Cup and the importance of critical infrastructure resilience for major events, Chairman Garbarino said:
“The shutdowns… did not help. But, you know, they’re working overtime to get things done. I am hugely concerned about the cyberattacks, especially on these mass events, as well as drone incursions. It’s actually the sites I’m not worried about. It’s more of the softer targets, of the fan zones, the parties. The stadiums that are having these games now, the stadiums that are having the Olympics––they’ve done this before… Those guys know how to handle security. It’s the other parts, the fan zones, the places and parks that are softer, much softer targets. So, I have much more concern about that.”
“There was actually a cyberattack at the [2024] Olympics in Paris. They somehow got into the system several years before, I think two years before the Olympics kicked off… When you talk about it, it wasn’t a mass casualty event, but it affected the entire site of the Olympics. You could have something that could shut down water going to a facility. You could shut down electricity. I mean, there are major things that could affect the Olympics or a World Cup game. And it’s not just about stealing information… If they could get into the operation side of some of these systems, that’s very, very scary.”
Rep. Sheri Biggs (R-SC) joined Fox LiveNOW.
On how to deter drone threats at the FIFA World Cup and America 250 celebrations, Rep. Biggs said:
“You mentioned the UFC freedom fight, and that underscored what many individuals have been warning about for some time: that drones are the weapon of the future. And we just have to have our head on a swivel and be prepared, especially with these large gatherings. According to Secretary Mullin, we’ve seized more than 50 drones near World Cup sites since this tournament started. And that just goes to show that we have to be aware of the threat with these bad actors, and we have to make sure that we are prepared. And that means for the U.S. leading in drone production and also counter-drone measures.”
“I can speak from a personal experience. I still am a member of the South Carolina Air Guard, and I can tell you that part of my job there includes implementing planning to make sure that we’re leading in drone production, as well as training our members. This is so important. Unmanned aircraft, I mean, this is a prime example of how we can protect our homeland and make sure that we’re not wasting resources, our taxpayer dollars, and keeping everyone safe––not to mention how the unmanned aircraft keeps our members, the men and women, out of harm’s way.”
On how law enforcement is securing Fan Festivals, Rep. Biggs said:
“We beefed up our numbers, and I continue to back the blue, and so do my colleagues in the Republican Party. It’s so hard to understand why the other side wishes to abolish ICE and not support our men and women that put their lives at risk every day to go out and protect us… We couldn’t have the great country that we have without the men and women that are serving. So, I want to say thank you to them. I want to say thank you to their families.”
Rep. Biggs also joined SiriusXM POTUS’s “The Briefing” with Steve Scully.
On prioritizing security during these major events, Rep. Biggs said:
“The security of our nation, security of the fans, athletes, and the host community––I think we have to make sure that we’re keeping that front and foremost during these events because we are definitely facing an unprecedented mix of security challenges, and just things are different in this day and time. So, we have to make sure that we are preparing, that we are training our law enforcement, that we are sharing information among the local, state, and federal agencies, and we’re able to respond under pressure… I feel confident that we’re doing what we need to do to make it a safe and secure opportunity for individuals to gather together.”
Rep. Vince Fong (R-CA) joined NewsNation’s “Morning in America.”
On how the FIFA World Cup will help the United States prepare to host other major global events in the next decade, Rep. Fong said:
“You see world travelers experiencing what makes America great and what we know to be the amazing things that our country offers. But at the same time, this is a real concern. We have drone incursions that have happened. We are catching up. When I was questioning and asking Secretary Mullin in our Homeland Security hearing what his biggest concern was going into the World Cup, he mentioned drones. We’re dealing with all of this in real time. Of course, this is a preparation for the Olympics for us in California. We are looking at everything. We’re analyzing everything. This is something we’re taking very seriously.”
On ensuring DHS is ready after repeated Democrat shutdowns, Rep. Fong said:
“The shutdowns that occurred were not helpful. Secretary Mullin has done an amazing job. We’re in catch-up mode… We had Democrats in Congress and in the Senate that not only shut down the government but shut down the Department of Homeland Security… The very people that are vetting our visitors, that are reviewing the visas, that are supporting our local law enforcement, to keep the security perimeter, to ensure the airspace is safe, to go after these drones that are infiltrating our airspace.”
BACKGROUND:
The 2026 FIFA World Cup is being held throughout North America and includes over 70 matches played in 11 different cities across the United States. The House Committee on Homeland Security’s bipartisan “Task Force on Enhancing Security for Special Events in the United States,” established in May 2025, has been an important part of House Homeland’s oversight of National Special Security Events (NSSEs) and major Special Event Assessment Rating (SEAR) events. Over the past year, the Special Events Task Force has worked diligently to examine the global threat landscape, identify lessons learned from previous major events, conduct oversight of DHS preparedness resources, and ensure the federal government is coordinating closely with state and local government agencies and private sector partners.
In February, the full Committee held a hearing with testimony from a FIFA World Cup host city official and local law enforcement to examine how state and local governments are working alongside private sector partners and federal agencies to prepare for and combat threats to these mass gathering events.
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