Is the Federal government doing enough to investigate UFOs?
Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo, believes there is more to be done and is calling on House leadership for further action.
On Tuesday, the congressman sent a letter to House leadership calling for the establishment of a select subcommittee under the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability to investigate the Federal Government’s response to Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) — or UFOs.
The letter was sent with support from Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, and Rep. Matt Gaetz, R- Fla.
The Federal government at large has conceded that UAPs are a national security issue, leading to a push to investigate these mysterious objects.
As a result, the Department of Defense (DoD) set up the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) in July 2022 as a permanent office within the department dedicated to studying UAPs.
However, some lawmakers have been critical of the DoD’s and the AARO’s lack of transparency and failure to identify UAPs.
Lawmakers began to call for efforts to investigate and declassify UAP-related government documents following a July 2023 House and Accountability subcommittee hearing, where three former U.S. defense officials testified that AARO has not seriously engaged with potential UAP observers. The officials also testified that the DoD needed better and more transparent reporting and response mechanisms.
Following that hearing, a bipartisan group of lawmakers formed the House UAP Caucus to call for further transparency and communication with the public from the department.
The proposed subcommittee is the logical next step, Rep. Burlison said.
In a written statement, Rep. Burlison explained that there is an urgent need for this select committee on UAP to uncover “details about legacy programs, dark money financing, and the complex relationship between Federal agencies and the private sector.”
“Transparency is essential for understanding the broader implications of UAP on national security, use of taxpayer funds, and public trust,” Rep. Burlison stated, who proposed that the select committee would first focus on questioning the DoD on expenditures he believes are for secret UAP recovery programs – according to the testimony made by former intelligence officials in the July 2023 hearing.
The Pentagon disavowed these alleged recovery programs in a report it released last week, claiming that all the expenditures questioned were either related to non-UAP projects or defunct ones.
“Given the long history of the DoD … lack of cooperation and transparency, it is in the best interest of American taxpayers for Congress to investigate UAP on a bipartisan basis and ultimately provide much needed transparency to the public,” the letter reads. “Therefore, we believe that establishing a new select subcommittee would provide a significant opportunity for Congress to provide answers that are long overdue.”
In addition, the lawmakers asked that the proposed select subcommittee be fully staffed and granted access to all material and information, both classified and unclassified, of Federal UAP-related data, which is currently protected by any form of exclusive access or restricted access.
Lawmakers also asked that the select subcommittee “should be granted access to all material and information, both classified and unclassified, possessed by the Federal government relating to all non-earth origin or exotic UAP material.”
