UAP Congressional Hearings: What We Learned About UFOs from Congress

On May 17, 2022, the House Intelligence Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation held the first public congressional hearing on UFOs in over fifty years. Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray and Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Ronald Moultrie testified about the Pentagon's efforts to investigate UAP sightings.

During the hearing, Bray presented a brief video clip of an unidentified spherical object captured by a Navy pilot and acknowledged that the number of UAP reports had grown to approximately 400. He stated that while many incidents could be attributed to known objects, a subset demonstrated characteristics that could not be immediately explained. The hearing was notable for its measured tone and bipartisan support for continued investigation.

The July 26, 2023 hearing before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee proved far more dramatic than its predecessor. Three witnesses testified: David Grusch, a former intelligence official turned whistleblower, and two military pilots, Commander David Fravor and Lieutenant Ryan Graves, both of whom had personally encountered unexplained aerial objects during service.

The hearing drew massive public attention, with the livestream attracting millions of viewers. Committee members from both parties expressed frustration with what they described as a lack of transparency from the Department of Defense and intelligence community. Several representatives stated they had been denied access to classified programs that Grusch alleged existed, raising serious questions about congressional oversight.

David Grusch testified under oath that the United States government possesses intact craft of non-human origin and has been engaged in a decades-long reverse-engineering program. He stated that he had been retaliated against for his whistleblowing and that he had provided classified details to the Inspector General that he could not share in a public setting. He also alleged that the government had recovered "biologics" from crash sites.

Commander Fravor described his 2004 encounter with the Tic Tac-shaped object off the coast of San Diego, detailing its extraordinary maneuverability and lack of visible propulsion. Lieutenant Graves testified about frequent UAP encounters by Navy pilots operating off the East Coast, warning that the objects posed a serious flight safety hazard and that the stigma around reporting had prevented pilots from coming forward for years.

Following the hearings, Congress took significant legislative action. Senator Chuck Schumer introduced the UAP Disclosure Act as an amendment to the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, proposing an independent review board with authority to declassify government-held UAP records, modeled on the JFK Assassination Records Act. While some provisions were weakened in the final bill, key elements including whistleblower protections were preserved.

Additional hearings have been held in the Senate, and bipartisan coalitions continue to push for greater disclosure. The legislative momentum generated by the 2022 and 2023 hearings has created a framework for ongoing oversight that did not previously exist. Whether these efforts will compel the executive branch to reveal what it knows about UAP remains a central question in the disclosure movement.