From Staff Reports 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As for the public concern spreading over the presence of mystery drones hovering over New Jersey, New York and adjoining areas along the East Coast, U.S. Rep. William Timmons, R-Greer, has registered his apprehensiveness.

In a posting on Reddit.com, which notes that he made these comments on “UFOs after the Nov 13th hearing,” he is quoted as saying the following:

“I do think that the government is trying to assess whether it’s China or non-human. I think that’s really the underlying question.

“This is next level. This isn’t like 10 years ahead of where we are. This is like 50 or 100 years ahead.”

Seeking further comment the Upstate Daily Planet contacted Timmons on Dec. 13 and was referred to his media liaison, who the newspaper called and emailed, but no statement was sent to the Daily Planet by its news deadline early Dec. 16 for this print edition.

The newspaper also sought further comment on two other issues from Timmons’ office —and, again, did not receive a response by the news deadline. The issues were the following:

• His aspiration to keep most of the new United States Postal Service trucks (now on order in a modernization of the fleet plan) as gasoline-operated, instead of mostly battery-operated.

• The concerns he recently voiced in Greenville, S.C., on the severity of the nation’s looming fiscal crisis.

Regarding the modernization of the USPS truck fleet, Timmons reportedly has said the Trump administration is considering canceling the order — as it now stands — when Donald Trump takes office.  

Originally, Timmons said his understanding was that the contract was to be for 90 percent internal combustion engine vehicles and 10 percent battery electric vehicles, but that it was changed later to 30 percent ICE and 70 percent BEV.

In seeking to push for mostly gas-operated trucks, Timmons noted that he is striving to make sure as much of the manufacturing for all of this is from domestic companies, especially those based in South Carolina. 

To that end, FOX Carolina noted in early December the following:

 â€œDuring a phone conversation with U.S. Rep. William Timmons (R-SC), Timmons told FOX Carolina he doesn’t want the people of Spartanburg County (S.C.) to be worried. He added Osh Kosh Defense is willing to go back to the 90-10 request and said he’s going to work with the new Congress to ensure the original contract is fulfilled.”

Further, FOX Carolina noted in its interview that “Timmons also sent a letter to Trump’s team Tuesday (Dec. 10), imploring them to honor the original contract. It says in part:

“‘Attempting to cancel these USPS contracts would be detrimental to South Carolina [and] send a counterproductive message to companies investing in domestic manufacturing…’”

Meanwhile, Timmons addressed the group First Monday in Greenville, a Republican business forum, on Dec. 2, where he in an Instagram post that he noted that “although there was plenty of holiday cheer this afternoon, we talked about something not-so-cheerful — our nation’s loomiing fiscal crisis.”

The congressman added that he told the forum that “our out-of-control national debt and deficit are the greatest national security threat we face.

“The math is not adding up. We have to get serious about reining in spending and growing our economy. I appreciated the opportunity to have a frank discussion today and talk about the path to restore fiscal sanity in Washington,” Timmons noted.