Lawmakers press for transparency ahead of UFO hearing

The House Oversight Committee hearing on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) next week will be centered on transparency, a bipartisan group of lawmakers said Thursday.

The committee hearing, spearheaded by Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), will investigate the increase in sightings of UAPs and their impact on national security. Burchett said the lack of information from the government — during Republican and Democratic administrations — has eroded public trust.

“This hearing is going to be different. We’re going to have witnesses who can speak frankly to the public about their experiences,” Burchett said. “We’ve had a heck of a lot of pushback about this hearing. There are a lot of people who don’t want this to come to light.”

Burchett and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) said members of Congress have been “stonewalled” by military officials when they’ve asked for details on UAPs, including their possible origins.

“This is ridiculous folks. Either they do exist or they don’t exist. They keep telling us they don’t exist, but they block every opportunity for us to get a hold of the information to prove that they do exist,” Burchett said. “And we’re gonna get to the bottom of that dadgummit. Whatever the truth may be. We’re done with the coverup.”

Burchett, Luna and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) visited a Florida Air Force base to meet with pilots about their UAP sightings, but the group was prevented from meeting the pilots at the last second by the Pentagon and was not shown the sensitive information promised, Luna said.

“And so, if the Department of the Air Force, if the Pentagon thinks they’re above Congress, they have something else coming to them,” she said. “We told them we were going to do this if they continue to hide information and ultimately, American people deserve the facts.” 

The committee will hear testimony from Air Force veteran David Grusch, a former member of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency who recently spoke on serving on a UAP task force led by the U.S. Navy, as well as former Navy commander David Fravor, who shot the leaked “tic tac” video showing an unidentified flying object off the coast of San Diego before it suddenly disappeared into the water.

Lawmakers will also hear from Ryan Graves, a former Navy pilot who reported multiple UAP encounters during training flights. Burchett noted Graves attended last year’s hearing held by the House Intelligence Committee but was “not allowed” inside until someone gave him press credentials. 

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.)  echoed his Republican colleagues’ calls for transparency on UAPs, arguing taxpayers are paying for programs that are “keeping this information secret.” 

“If the answer is that there are no unidentified aerial phenomena, then say that, but that’s not what the answers are. The answers are, ‘We can’t tell you.” And so, that leads to speculation,” Moskowitz said. “And so this is something that has undoubtedly captured the public’s attention in multiple administrations.” 

“Unnecessary censoring things or overclassification is what leads to all of these theories that have been out there,” he continued. 

Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would require government records related to UAPs to be declassified and disclosed. 

The amendment would create a collection of records in the National Archives and Records Administration and require each government office to identify which records fall into the collection. 

Last month, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said there are likely many more UAP sightings than what is known to the public, saying the U.S. government has “downplayed” the issue.

A Senate Intelligence subcommittee held a hearing on UAPs in May.