Congress To Hold Hearing On UFOs Later This Month

Congress is set to hold new hearings on UFOs, as confirmed by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York's office in September, with dates tentatively scheduled for after the US presidential election, when Congress reconvenes on November 13.

This hearing will come over a year since the landmark UAP (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) hearing in 2023, where the issue of unexplained aerial sightings gained support from both major US political parties. The Democrats and Republicans generally tend to disagree with each other on most issues, so their joint cooperation in this matter is an indication of how significant the UAP topic has become.

The 2023 hearing, which lasted over two hours, included testimony from three former military and intelligence officials who described their encounters with UAPs. These witnesses reported seeing objects that defied current technological understanding. Some described the objects performing flight manoeuvres that would be impossible for any known aircraft, raising concerns over a potential national security threat.

They also urged the military to be more open with the public about what it knows. A key aspect raised during the hearing was the seemingly advanced technology of these objects, which retired US Navy Commander David Fravor and former Air Force intelligence officer David Grusch noted as far beyond anything the US currently possesses.

In the proposed November 2024 hearing, Congress expects an update from the Pentagon, with many of the same lawmakers involved in the 2023 hearing expected to return. The House Oversight Committee, one of several committees in the US House of Representatives that review government activities, will lead this hearing, while the Senate is expected to hold its own review.

Senator Gillibrand, who helped launch the Pentagon's All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) specifically to study UAPs, has emphasised the importance of transparency. "It's a priority for me. I think it's very important that we continue to make things publicly available," she said on Laslo's D.C. 'Ask a Pol' podcast.

Representative Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina and chair of the upcoming House hearing, has indicated that the committee is working to secure additional witnesses but is withholding their identities out of concern they might face intimidation.

One topic many advocates for UAP disclosure are hoping will be discussed during the hearing, which will once again be held on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, are rumours of an alleged secret Pentagon program aimed at collecting and analysing UAP data. This program reportedly focuses on gathering high-quality UFO imagery and possibly even attempting to reverse engineer UAP technology.

The program was exposed by an anonymous whistleblower who provided details to the news site Public, including that the program might be called 'Immaculate Constellation'.

The Pentagon has denied any knowledge of such a program, but if it does exist, having withheld this information from Congress in the previous hearing could constitute a breach of US oversight laws, as Congress is legally required to have knowledge of any significant defence or intelligence programs.

This upcoming hearing is likely to generate the same amount of excitement in the UFO community as last year. Researchers and activists pushing for transparency will be hoping that the hearing holds the potential to expand on last year's revelations, as officials face mounting pressure to clarify exactly what the US government knows about UAPs.