7 Things to Know About UFOs as Congress Proposal Would Declassify Records

Sen. Chuck Schumer has introduced a bill that would declassify as many records as possible related to the Pentagon's experience with UFOs. Intelligencer put this in context: "It was a step toward actual clarity from the government: This is the Senate majority leader after all, not just some crackpot backbencher in the House." Here are seven things you should know about what's called the Non-Human Intelligence Act.

As part of a bipartisan group of five other senators, Schumer has attached his initiative to the annual Defense policy bill. It requires "any and all recovered [UFOs] and biological evidence of non-human intelligence that may be controlled by private persons or entities" to be given to a Senate-appointed review board.  That panel would determine which evidence could be released to the public. Although the board could choose to withhold certain information for national security reasons, it would be legally required to "carry a presumption of immediate disclosure" to the public.

According to the legislation, "non-human intelligence" is defined as "any sentient intelligent non-human lifeform, regardless of nature or ultimate origin which may be presumed responsible for" UFOs.  The Hill calls the language "stunning," noting it's "not included in bipartisan congressional legislation on a mere whim, let alone proposed by the Senate's top lawmaker."

According to Schumer, "the sheer number and variety" of UFO-related claims "led some in Congress to believe that the [U.S. government] was concealing important information regarding UAPs over broad periods of time."  The bill claims "credible evidence and testimony indicates that Federal Government [UFO] records exist that have not been declassified" as required by law.

The House Oversight Committee is planning a hearing on UFOs—officially referred to as unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs—for July 26.  State Department spokesman John Kirby said the Biden administration is prioritizing the issue and looking for answers. "We wouldn't have stood up an organization at the Pentagon to analyze and try to collect and coordinate the way these sightings are reported if we didn't take it seriously," Kirby said. "Of course we do."

The bill follows allegations by former intelligence official David Grusch that secret UFO retrieval and reverse-engineering programs were illegally hidden from Congress. "Importantly, the powerful investigative body that oversees the nation's intelligence agencies found Grusch's allegations to be 'credible and urgent,'" The Hill reports. 

Sen. Marco Rubio,  vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, gave credence to the bill and Grusch's allegations in a recent interview with NewsNation. "Either what [Grusch] is saying is partially true or entirely true, or we have some really smart, educated people with high clearances and very important positions in our government who are crazy and are leading us on a goose chase," he said.  "Most of these people," Rubio continued, "have held very high clearances and high positions within our government. So, you ask yourself: 'What incentive would so many people with that kind of qualification — these are serious people — have to come forward and make something up?'"

Two recent reports, which site multiple military, intelligence and private sector officials, claim defense contractors possess multiple craft of "non-human" origin.  In April, the director of the Pentagon's new program for studying UFOs said he had seen no evidence of alien spacecraft. "I should also state clearly for the record," said Sean Kirkpatrick, the Director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), "that in our research, AARO has found no credible evidence thus far of extraterrestrial activity, off-world technology, or objects that defy the known laws of physics."  But the newsletter Public reports that multiple sources have claimed the government is in possession of at least a dozen alien spacecraft.