House, Senate defense bills have amendments to declassify UFO documents

Lawmakers are pushing for more transparency on the government’s UFO documents, with additions to an annual Pentagon policy bill.

Congressional officials are making attempts to ensure that this year’s National Defense Authorization Act requires the declassification of UFO-related documents amid growing bipartisan support from lawmakers to make the classified documents public. A House committee also will hold a hearing on UFOs next week.

An amendment to the House version of the defense bill proposed by Rep. Tim Burchett, Tennessee Republican, advanced last week.

Mr. Burchett’s amendment would require the Defense Department to declassify any documents related to publicly known sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs.

“All I’m asking for is transparency from the government,” Mr. Burchett told reporters. “If there aren’t UFOs, then why do they keep hiding it?”

Mr. Burchett said after the NDAA vote Friday he’s seen videos of pilots laughing while chasing objects performing gravity-defying maneuvers that would “turn our bodies into a pool of ketchup” because of the level of G-forces necessary for the movements.

A 2022 report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which gathered hundreds of reports from Navy and Air Force pilots, showed that the number of sightings has increased in recent years.

There were 247 UFO or UAP sightings between March 2021 and August 2022, with another 119 reported after the initial reporting period. Of those 366, over half were described as drones or balloon-like entities similar to the Chinese spy balloon first spotted over Montana earlier this year.

The other 171 objects were harder to characterize, and appeared “to have demonstrated unusual flight characteristics or performance capabilities, and require further analysis,” according to the report.

Mr. Burchett questioned what was more important than making sure that pilots and aircraft are safe. He said there have been 14 confirmed near collisions between military pilots and unidentified aircraft.

Mr. Burchett announced on social media Monday that the House Oversight Committee would hold a hearing on UFOs next week. The session will be led by Mr. Burchett and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, Florida Republican.

Meanwhile, a bipartisan amendment to the Senate’s version of the NDAA takes Mr. Burchett’s add-on further. The chamber plans to consider the defense bill this week.

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, proposed an amendment that would require the National Archives to collect all federal government records related to UFOs.

Mr. Schumer was joined by Republican Sens. Mike Rounds of South Dakota, Marco Rubio of Florida and Todd Young of Indiana. The proposal has garnered Democratic support in the chamber, with Sens. Kristen E. Gillibrand of New York and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico also pushing for the amendment.

The UAP and UFO records would be gathered “under the presumption of immediate disclosure,” meaning they would be made public immediately unless a review board created by the amendment can find reasons to keep them classified.

Mr. Schumer’s add-on is modeled after the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, which required the public disclosure of documents connected to the former president’s assassination 25 years after its passage.

The amendment is a continuation of the legacy of late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, Mr. Schumer said.

During his time in office, Mr. Reid pushed for the creation of the Pentagon’s now-defunct Advanced Aerospace Identification Program, which was a unit tasked with studying reports of UFOs.  

“For decades, many Americans have been fascinated by objects mysterious and unexplained and it’s long past time they get some answers,” Mr. Schumer said in a statement. “The American public has a right to learn about technologies of unknown origins, non-human intelligence, and unexplainable phenomena.”