Transparency

“In Fiscal Year 2024, the NDA required the National Archives and Records Administration to establish the unidentified anonymous phenomena records collection. This collection will include digital copies of all unidentified UAP records that can be publicly disclosed.”

“Earlier this year, I joined Congressman Burchett to introduce the UAP Transparency Act, which would require the declassification of all documents related to UAPs, with many other Members of this Committee.”

“earlier this year, as part of the House defense authorization bill, the NDAA, I had filed an amendment to include the UAP Disclosure Act, which would create a UAP Records Review Board with exercise of eminent domain over UAP-related material, modeled actually on the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act”

“I first want to thank the Chairs and Ranking Members for holding the hearing today on this topic and, again, having a second hearing.”

“I am also a member of the UAP Discloser Fund as an advisor and the Sol Foundation as a senior strategic advisor, which is advocating the same”

“I personally have worked with multiple Members of this Committee, but I want to particularly thank Congressman Burchett, Mace, Luna, and Garcia for working on bipartisan pieces of legislation.”

“the amendment was blocked, but thankfully the Senate included the amendment by Senators Rounds and Schumer for the UAP Disclosure Act”

“I think it is also important to note for the public, we—today in our hearing we had on our side also both our full Ranking Member, which is Mr. Raskin, and our Vice Ranking Member, which is Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, both here at our hearing.”

“With regard to the importance of transparency, the Department is fully committed to the principle of openness and accountability to the American people. However, we are also mindful of our obligation to protect sensitive sources and methods.”

“Therefore, public disclosures must be carefully considered on a case-by-case basis”

“Yes. I will say—I will call it a lazy attitude about declassifying videos. I mean, I have seen some of the videos of, you know, the recent shoot down and I saw no reason that could not have been released as long as they mask, you know, some data. The American people deserve to see that imagery and full motion video.”

“And, as we get into a new administration, the President-elect has talked about opportunities to declassify information on UAPs, and I hope he lives up to that promise.”

“Our goal is to strike that delicate balance, one that enables us to maintain the public's trust while preserving those capabilities that are vital to the support of our service personnel.”

“And given the nature of our business, national defense, we have had to sometimes be less forthcoming with information in open forums than many would hope”

“We recognize that that can be unsatisfying or insufficient in the eyes of many”

“For what purpose is the Federal Government overclassifying—because that is what they are doing; they are overclassifying—and forbidding the public from getting access to this?”

“It is also the responsibility of our government and this panel to share as much as we can with the American people since excessive secrecy only breeds distrust and speculation.”

“Holding a portion of our discussion today in open session is critical to the cause of transparency and openness which was Congress' intent in authorizing and funding this new task force.”

“This is about national security, government accountability, and the American people's right to the truth.”

“I think we are going to want to look into what we can do to make more of this information public. I think there is certainly a time period after which it should always be made public and people have been concerned about these issues, like I said, since I was in high school.”

“I am a freshman Member of Congress and I have only been here for 7 months. But this is by far the most bipartisan conversation and discussion that I have seen happen in the Congress and I think that a topic of this significance as it relates to our national security, as it relates to information that we are trying to gather for the American public does bring people together and I think that has been really great to see.”

“Yes, and I think we need both transparency and the reporting. We have the reporting, but we need to make sure that information can be promulgated to commercial aviation as well as the rest of the populace.”

“Last year's hearing was a great example of open dialog about UAPs, and we must remain committed to sharing information with the American people.”

“Many of us have also called for additional public hearings to discuss UAPs.”

“I want to thank the witnesses for coming forward today to share your expertise on UAPs and the need to build trust through transparency.”

“Let me also just add an additional note that it is important also that our friends in the media and those that are not just reporting on this hearing but that have reported on this topic and that may in the future, the media has an important role in this process and it is very important that the media engages, does independent investigation, and reports on not just what happened today but what they see independently as what has happened around UAPs in the broader community.”

“Let me ask you all, how can the public contribute to UAP reporting and what avenues you think are available to the public to report these sightings?”

“So, I take it that you are arguing what we need is real transparency and a reporting system so we can get some clarity on what is going on out there because there are many pilots in your situation. But we should have a way of developing a systematic inventory of all of such encounters. Is that right?”

“But it is also very clear that we have to continue our investigation and accountability on asking the right questions and ensuring that they are part of the public record.”

“I want to additionally add that I think—and I encourage—I think it is really important that we have and continue these discussions and these hearings. Clearly, there is a lot of information that we do not know.”