Will the proposed UAP Disclosure Act reveal UFO secrets?

Is the U.S. government hiding UFO secrets? If so, they might soon be forced to disclose them, due to a new amendment from House Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD). The amendment will go to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2024. It’ll mandate the declassification of government records about UAP, which is what the U.S. military and others now call UFOs.

They modeled the amendment on the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992.

Senate Democrats announced the proposed amendment on July 14, 2023. Besides declassifying goverment records, the new amendment will create a new UAP Records Collection.

At the time of the announcement, no Democrats or Republicans had objected to the amendment’s inclusion in the NDAA.

Read the entire original NDAA amendment here (64 pages)

An updated version, with only a few minor tweaks, is also here

While Schumer and Rounds are leading the amendment, it also has the support of other senators as well. These include Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), Vice Chairman of the Intelligence Committee; Senator Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY), Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities for the Armed Services Committee; Senator Todd Young (R-IN) and Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM).

On July 18, Schumer tweeted:

The Senate is working to include policies in the NDAA that bode well for our country's future:

—Leading in AI innovation
—Outcompeting the Chinese government
—Increasing transparency on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs)

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) July 18, 2023

Researcher Douglas Dean Johnson, who covers the congressional side of the UAP issue, confirmed on the same day that the amendment was added to the NDAA without objection:

CONGRESS UPDATE

1) The U.S. Senate today (July 18, 2023) moved the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (S. 2226) through its first procedural gate, 72-25. The new Schumer-Rounds Amendment ("UAP Disclosure Act") was added to the bill without objection, pic.twitter.com/VJ3OocGszS

— D. Dean Johnson (@ddeanjohnson) July 19, 2023

UAP Disclosure Act of 2023

Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) Disclosure Act of 2023 is the title of the amendment. It is, specifically, designed to mandate disclosure of government documents pertaining to UAP. As the press release described:

The legislation introduced as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that will be on the Senate floor next week would direct the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to create a collection of records to be known as the UAP Records Collection. It would direct every government office to identify which records would fall into the collection. The UAP Records Collection would carry the presumption of immediate disclosure, which means that a review board would have to provide a reasoning for the documents to stay classified.

Note: The press release is from July 14, and, as noted above, the amendment went to the Senate floor this week and passed.

The legacy of Harry Reid

As Schumer explained, the amendment was inspired by the late former Majority Leader Harry Reid. Indeed, Reid was well-known for his interest in and advocacy for the UAP issue. Now, Schumer wants to continue that, taking into account the current developments from the past few years. Schumer said:

For decades, many Americans have been fascinated by objects mysterious and unexplained, and it’s long past time they get some answers. The American public has a right to learn about technologies of unknown origins, non-human intelligence, and unexplainable phenomena. We are not only working to declassify what the government has previously learned about these phenomena but to create a pipeline for future research to be made public. I am honored to carry on the legacy of my mentor and dear friend, Harry Reid, and fight for the transparency that the public has long demanded surrounding these unexplained phenomena.

Rounds added:

Our goal is to assure credibility with regard to any investigation or record keeping of materials associated with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs). Relevant documents related to this issue should be preserved. Providing a central collection location and reputable review board to maintain the records adds to the credibility of any future investigations.

A vast web

For anyone who has followed the developments over the past few years, there has been an increasing amount of attention paid to the UAP issue. Notably, this includes U.S. government agencies such as the Department of Defense (DoD) and NASA; the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics; and scientists. In addition, after Congress previously mandated protections for “whistleblowers” earlier this year, numerous individuals have reportedly come forward to provide evidence in classified briefings. Both Congress and DoD’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) have reportedly received testimony. The first person to go public about this was David Grusch last month.

The Senate Democrats’ press release acknowledges this. To be sure, it notes that there are – as should be expected – “varying levels of credibility.” But it also says that the issue should be taken seriously:

During his time in Congress, former Majority Leader Harry Reid sponsored a project to investigate incidents surrounding UAPs. After that project became public, senators, congressmen, committees, and staff began to pursue this issue and uncovered a vast web of individuals and groups with ideas and stories to share. While these stories have varying levels of credibility, the sheer number and variety has led some in Congress to believe that the executive branch was concealing important information regarding UAPs over broad periods of time.

Congress recognizes that these records – if they exist – were likely concealed under the good faith goal of protecting national security. However, hiding that information from both Congress and the public at large is simply unacceptable. Our goal is to work cooperatively with the executive branch to responsibly disclose these documents and bring the topic into the public sphere in a process that the American people can trust.

Schumer briefly discusses the amendment in the Senate on July 18, 2023, in the video below.

Intriguing legislation

The new legislation follows previous UAP amendments added to the NDAA for the past three years now. In addition, Gillibrand and Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) have also added other amendments for 2024. The new Schumer amendment, whatever one may think of the UAP issue in general, is remarkable for its detail and what it says.

For example, as stated in the amendment, there is a 25-year deadline for the release of records. The press release erroneously said that was 25 years after the amendment/NDAA becomes law. But in the amendment itself, it is actually 25 years after the original creation of a document. As Reuters correctly reported:

Under the measure, records must be publicly disclosed in full no later than 25 years after they were created unless the U.S. president certifies that continued postponement is necessary because of a direct harm to national security.

Also, interestingly, the term “non-human intelligence” appears in the amendment no less than 22 times. One example is in the press release:

Additionally, the federal government shall have eminent domain over any and all recovered technologies of unknown origin (TUO) and biological evidence of non-human intelligence (NHI) that may be controlled by private persons or entities in the interests of the public good.

Um, what?

Presidential 9-person review board on UAP

Additionally, there is also a mandate for the president to create a nine-person review board. This board would assess all records for potential public release. The press release stated:

After the UAP Records Collection is created, the legislation will create a UAP Records Review Board, an independent agency, which would consider if a UAP record would qualify for postponement of disclosure. After the Review Board has made a formal determination concerning public disclosure or postponement, the president will have the sole ability to overturn or concur such determination.

Curiously, the amendment also recommends that postponed or redacted records be reviewed periodically as part of a Controlled Disclosure Campaign Plan.

Next UAP hearing in Congress

In addition, the next UAP hearing in Congress will be on July 26, 2023. The House Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs will hold the public hearing at 10:00 am ET (14 UTC). Altogether, three witnesses will be speaking, including Ryan Graves, former Navy fighter pilot and executive director of Americans for Safe Aerospace; retired Commander David Fravor, former commanding officer, Black Aces Squadron, U.S. Navy; and David Grusch, former national reconnaissance officer representative, Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Task Force, Department of Defense.

The hearing will be live-streamed here. This will, in fact, be the third congressional hearing on UAP since May 17, 2022.

Bottom line: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has added a new amendment to the NDAA bill for 2024. It aims to declassify and release government records related to UAP, aka UFOs.

Via Senate Democrats

Via Reuters