Whereas, on February 2, 2023, the Department of Defense publicly announced it was tracking over United States territory a high-altitude surveillance balloon belonging to the People’s Republic of China (PRC); Whereas the Department of Defense has since acknowledged that North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) first began tracking the surveillance balloon on January 28, 2023, prior to its entry into United States airspace; Whereas the Secretary of Defense has stated that the balloon was being used by the PRC in an attempt to surveil strategic sites in the continental United States ; Whereas the surveillance balloon traveled near sensitive United States national security facilities, including Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana; Whereas, on February 4, 2023, a United States Air Force aircraft shot down the surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina; Whereas the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) intelligence collection directed against the United States poses a threat to United States interests and security; Whereas, while the PRC has a long history of intelligence collection operations against United States national security entities, reports of its espionage have risen significantly in recent years; Whereas the CCP attempted to spread false claims about the nature and purpose of the surveillance balloon, falsely claiming it to be a weather balloon that veered off-course due to force majeure events; Whereas, on February 3, 2023, the Secretary of State postponed his planned trip to the PRC and referred to the balloon incident as an irresponsible act and a clear violation of U.S. sovereignty and international law that undermined the purpose of the trip ; Whereas Article I of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, also known as the Chicago Convention, states that every State has complete and exclusive sovereignty over the airspace above its territory