The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Accountability is set to hold a hearing titled "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Unveiling the Truth" to delve into secret research programs and undisclosed discoveries related to unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs). Scheduled for Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. ET, the hearing aims to shed light on the government's knowledge of these mysterious sightings and address public concerns about transparency.
House Republicans, led by Representatives Nancy Mace and Glenn Grothman, are spearheading the initiative to bring systemic transparency to the issue of UAPs. In a joint statement, Mace and Grothman emphasized, "Americans deserve to understand what the government has learned about UAP sightings and the nature of any potential threats these phenomena pose." They added, "We can only ensure that understanding by providing consistent, systemic transparency. We look forward to hearing from expert witnesses on ways to shed more light and bring greater accountability to this issue."
The hearing will feature testimonies from prominent former military officials regarding their knowledge of federal government programs shrouded in secrecy. Among the expert witnesses are Luis Elizondo, Michael Gold, Michael Shellenberger, and Dr. Tim Gallaudet.
Luis Elizondo, a decorated former counterintelligence officer and the former head of the Pentagon's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, has claimed for years that the U.S. government is hiding knowledge of UAPs from the public. Elizondo stated, "There's a whole lot more here folks. I just want to give you kind of a small taste of what's going on behind the scenes." He continued, "We're having pilots, military pilots and civilian pilots in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, report what unimaginably seems impossible."
Michael Gold, former NASA Associate Administrator of Space Policy and Partnerships and a member of NASA's independent UAP study team, will testify on the importance of greater cooperation between the government and the "world's civil and commercial sectors" in discussing the future of UAP research. Gold has been involved in NASA's UAP study, which took place in October 2022.
Michael Shellenberger, a journalist and activist, has been called to testify after publishing classified UFO data last month. He has claimed that the U.S. government is hiding UFO crash retrieval programs. According to Shellenberger's prereleased remarks, he will discuss the "Immaculate Constellation" program that appeared in a leaked whistleblower report, which alleges, "The Executive Branch has been managing UAP/NHI issues without Congressional knowledge, oversight, or authorization for some time, quite possibly decades."
Dr. Tim Gallaudet, a retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral and oceanographer, has extended the search for UAPs to include unidentified submersible objects. He has claimed that unknown "underwater anomalies jeopardize U.S. maritime security." Gallaudet stated, "The last example that I saw was from the USS Omaha off Southern California—a well-known video that Jeremy Corbell, one of the UAP media types, has gotten out there." He added, "And there's other examples too, classified examples I can't talk about, but confirmation that we see these things underwater." Gallaudet is currently the CEO of Ocean STL Consulting, LLC, a marine technology and management consulting agency.
Representative Tim Burchett, a Republican from Tennessee, has been vocal about the need for transparency on UAPs. Burchett stated, "The Pentagon and Washington bureaucrats have kept this information hidden for decades, and we're finally going to shed some light on it." He added, "We're bringing in credible witnesses who can provide public testimony because the American people deserve the truth. We're done with the cover-ups." In an interview with Newsmax, Burchett likened Wednesday's hearing to "peeling back the layers of an onion" and said, "I think we're going to learn some things." He also told NewsNation Prime, "The best pilots in the world, that are our pilots, are telling us that these things are flying in close proximity to their aircraft."
The hearing, which will be broadcast live and streamed online, represents the second congressional hearing on UAPs organized by the U.S. Congress. The first public hearing in 2022 provided new insights to the public, documenting at least 400 sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena, many of which were by U.S. military pilots. However, some considered the previous hearings disappointing due to the lack of definitive conclusions. Last year's initial hearing also documented 11 near-collisions involving unidentified aerial phenomena.
Following the report published last year on UFOs, now officially known as Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs), the U.S. Congress and NASA have decided to take new measures to improve transparency and the quality of research around these mysterious sightings. The term UAP, synonymous with unidentified flying object (UFO), was first coined by the Pentagon in 2022 to include the tracking of unexplainable sightings in bodies of water.
Pressure on Congress and government institutions has increased in recent years due to former members of the intelligence community and military forces testifying about their own encounters with these phenomena. In July 2023, whistleblower David Grusch asserted that the Pentagon has been operating a secret crash retrieval program for UFOs, a claim that the Defense Department has denied. The Defense Department has stated there is "no evidence" of any government investigation that has "confirmed that any sighting of a UAP represented extraterrestrial technology," and no evidence has emerged to back up Grusch's claims.
Despite growing public expectation, the panel of experts, which included high-level scientists and artificial intelligence specialists, concluded that "there is no evidence that UAPs have an extraterrestrial origin," although they do not rule out the need to investigate further due to current limitations in data collection and analysis. The NASA report points to the need for a concerted effort to improve the quality of data on UAPs. To address these challenges, the report recommends that NASA leverage its Earth observation satellites and establish collaborations with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), among other institutions.
Dan Evans, Deputy Administrator in NASA's Science Mission Directorate, stated that UAPs pose potential risks to air safety, affirming that it is the country's responsibility to understand the nature of these phenomena to ensure the safety of its skies. Evans emphasized, "The first 'A' in NASA is aeronautics," insisting that the agency must investigate thoroughly to ensure that airspace is safe for all.
Bill Nelson, NASA Administrator, highlighted during the report presentation that one of the biggest obstacles is the lack of concrete data on UAPs, as sightings are often fleeting and difficult to study systematically. Nelson concluded, "There is much more to learn" about UAPs, and greater collaboration and transparency with the public could be key to unraveling their mysteries in the coming years.
Sources: The Guardian, Newsmax, Washington Examiner, OANN (One America News Network), Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Scienze Notizie, Infobae.
This article was written in collaboration with generative AI company Alchemiq