Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) have introduced a bipartisan amendment to the NDAA that would declassify government UFO records.
Majority Leader Schumer’s office announced in a statement:
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity for the Armed Services Committee, are leading an amendment – Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) Disclosure Act of 2023 – along with 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) which would increase transparency around Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) and further open scientific research.
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 and 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.
One thing that Republicans and Democrats can agree on after the spate of public officials either mistakenly (Pence and Biden) or willfully keeping (Tump) classified documents is that the United States government has an overclassification problem.
It is time for Congress to start making agencies provide a reason why some documents are classified.
Do we need documents related to UFOs and the unexplained classified?
Transparency in government is good for democracy. The promotion of scientific research is good for humanity.
Legislation and amendments are often introduced that have zero chance of becoming law.
This one is likely to become law. Due to having the support of Republicans and Democrats, it will make it through the Senate version of the bill, as long as House Republicans don’t strip it out of their version. It should be in the final legislation that will eventually be passed and signed by President Biden.
Senate Majority Leader Schumer said, “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 surround these unexplained phenomena.”
The American people have a right to know, and soon they are likely to be able to find out.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
