This all could have been avoided had those idiots down in Texas had the sense to ask someone who keeps up with this kind of thing.

There are several commercial solutions available that would allow them to look up aircraft by owners, then track the location of the plane based upon filed flight plans.

Lexis/Nexis asset tracker would let you access public aircraft registration records, and a solution like AirNav would let you find where the plane is/is heading.

http://www.airnavsystems.com/ANLV/index.htm

Like most lazy government employees their first thought on how to find a solution to a problem involved turning to their hooked-up friends-in-high-places.

And it was just like their hooked-up friends in high places to use the system in a manner that was (at the very least) improper in order to further their political agenda.