Congress finds rare common ground on UFOs.
The House Oversight Committee Explores Unidentified Flying Objects
The House Oversight Committee has gained a reputation for its deep partisan divide, often using the panel to push its own agenda and investigate its own interests. However, there is one topic that has the potential to bridge this gap: unidentified flying objects (UFOs).
Next week, the committee members will hold a hearing featuring testimony from several whistleblowers who claim to have witnessed unidentified anomalous phenomena. This marks a rare bipartisan effort to focus on government transparency and national security. Lawmakers have been frustrated by the U.S. government’s refusal to disclose information on UFOs, and this hearing aims to address that issue.
A Bipartisan Effort for Transparency
“There are a lot of people who don’t want this to come to life,” said Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN). “This is ridiculous, folks. They either 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. And we’re gonna get to the bottom of it, whatever the truth may be.”
Rep. Burchett is leading this bipartisan effort alongside Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), and Eric Burlison (R-MO). Each of them has highlighted how previous attempts to investigate UFOs and their potential threats to national security have been obstructed by government agencies.
During a meeting with the Air Force earlier this year, Reps. Burchett and Luna were denied access to whistleblower testimonies and other materials related to UFO sightings. “We went down there, we were stonewalled,” Luna said. “They would not give us access to testimony from some of the pilots. They were hiding images and information.”
Lawmakers have also expressed concerns about the lack of information provided by U.S. officials and the pressure exerted by the Pentagon on whistleblowers who were scheduled to testify before Congress.
Focusing on Government Transparency and Accountability
The witness testimonies and the withholding of information by U.S. officials have raised concerns among lawmakers not only about national security but also about government transparency and accountability. These issues will be the focal point of the upcoming hearing. Additionally, lawmakers plan to introduce legislation that would require the federal government to disclose information about UFOs, building on previous efforts to make investigative findings available to the public.
Rep. Burchett attempted to include an amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization being considered by Congress this week. The amendment would have mandated the FAA to report any UFO sightings by commercial pilots to Congress. Unfortunately, the measure did not make it to the floor for a vote, with Burchett claiming that the intelligence community shut it down.
Seeking Answers and Ensuring National Security
This latest effort comes after Congress directed the Defense Department to establish the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office in 2022 to investigate reported UFO sightings. However, the government has not made its findings public, leading to outcry from lawmakers who argue that this secrecy poses national security risks.
“Are they domestic? Are they foreign? Are they something else? Or do they not exist?” questioned Rep. Moskowitz. “The government needs to have straight answers. The American people deserve to know the truth on this. Unnecessarily censoring things or overclassification is what leads to all of these theories that have been out there.”
The hearing, scheduled for Wednesday, will feature testimony from three witnesses: Ryan Graves, executive director of Americans for Safe Aerospace; retired Cmdr. David Fravor, former commanding officer for the U.S. Navy; and David Grusch, former national reconnaissance office representative of the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Task Force at the Department of Defense.
This meeting is expected to be one of several focused on UFOs, with lawmakers considering field hearings at the locations where UFO sightings have occurred.
“Are we okay with the federal government keeping information from the American people because they’re trying to prevent us from having anxiety on all sorts of issues?” asked Rep. Moskowitz. “The idea that the human brain can’t tolerate that there might be life somewhere else — I just don’t accept that. At the end of the day, I think the hearing is really about real-life accounts from reliable people.”
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