“The Subcommittee on unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs, will come to order.”
House Oversight UAP Hearing - July 26, 2023
- Date
- 26 Jul 2023
- Venue
- House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs
- Language
- en
- Status
- Extracted
514
statements
21
speakers
15
entities mentioned
Speakers
21 speakers, A to ZAlexandria Ocasio-CortezVice Ranking Member8 statementsAndy BiggsRepresentative5 statementsAnna Paulina LunaU.S. Representative23 statementsCommander David FravorNavy Commander26 statementsCommander FravorNavy Commander20 statementsDavid FravorNavy Commander3 statementsDavid GruschFormer U.S. Space Force Officer104 statementsEric BurlisonU.S. Congressman12 statementsGarciaRepresentative40 statementsGlenn GrothmanU.S. Congressman17 statementsJamie RaskinRepresentative22 statementsJared MoskowitzRepresentative29 statementsMatt GaetzRepresentative16 statementsMr. GarciaRepresentative14 statementsMr. GravesFormer Navy Pilot3 statementsMr. GrothmanU.S. Congressman12 statementsMr. GruschFormer U.S. Space Force Officer8 statementsNancy Mace9 statementsRyan GravesFormer Navy Pilot88 statementsTim BurchettRepresentative53 statementsVirginia FoxxRepresentative2 statements
Transcript
514 statements, in transcript orderEach entry is one claim, quoted word for word. These are extracted statements, not the full record: the original document has everything.
- 001
- 002
“I would like to thank the brave military panelists and personnel, such as the witnesses on the panel today, for sharing their stories on how they have engaged UAPs, which has brought attention to this matter.”
- 003
“when I was younger in school I read a book—a 1966 book called ''Flying Saucers Serious Business'' and for a while when I was a little bit younger, I thought it was the most important issue out there.”
- 004
“The lack of transparency regarding UAPs has fueled wild speculation and debate for decades, eroding public trust in the very institutions that are meant to serve and protect them”
- 005
“in 1966, President Gerald Ford claimed to have seen a UFO, and in 1969 in Georgia, Jimmy Carter claimed to have seen a UFO”
- 006
“The National Defense Authorization Act of 2022 established the all-domain anomaly resolution officer—AARO—to conduct or to coordinate efforts across the Department of Defense and other Federal agents to detect, identify, and investigate UAPs.”
- 007
“AARO's budget remains classified, prohibiting meaningful oversight from Congress.”
- 008
“NASA is leading an independent study on UAPs to identify how UAP data is gathered from both civilian and government entities that can be analyzed to shed light on the topic.”
- 009
“The Biden Administration's handling of the Chinese spy balloon that violated U.S. air space is one example how the government is not prepared for these.”
- 010
“Between the Chinese balloon being shot down and two UAPs subsequently shot down following the event earlier this year the U.S. Government spent $1.5 million in taxpayer dollars on missiles.”
- 011
“Yet, we have seen little clarity from the Biden Administration.”
- 012
“We must demand transparency from the Department of Defense, our intelligence community, and our defense industry on the UAP work.”
- 013
“Congress recognizes the subject of UAPs is multifaceted and requires a careful data-driven approach.”
- 014
“Today, we are not just debating the existence of UAPs. We are deliberating on the principles that define our republic, which is a commitment to transparency and accountability.”
- 015
“I want to remind everybody this is a nonpartisan issue. This has nothing to do with party politics. I think the cover up goes a lot deeper than that.”
- 016
“if it had not been for Matt Gaetz, myself, him, and Luna would still be down at Eglin Air Force Base trying to get some answers.”
- 017
“I also would like to enter in—I understand now that this is unclassified, and it is public record but as we all know that is sometimes difficult for the public to get a hold of—a report, defense intelligence reference documents, ''Advanced Space Propulsion Based on Vacuum (spacetime metric) Engineering,''”
- 018
“Mr. Knapp wrote since 1969, the position of our military has been that UFOs posed no threat to national security and are not worthy of further study.”
- 019
“I would say that is the biggest understatement of the decade.”
- 020
“He also goes on to talk about the dismissive attitude is at odds with what was revealed in documents, reports, and internal memos.”
- 021
“Mr. Corbell says as he writes these words, the UFO is emerging as a major topic of global importance.”
- 022
“I can state that as a fact out there. I met a fellow who came in here all the way from Denmark to be here for this meeting. So, this is huge. This is worldwide.”
- 023
“I think we suspect what is going on.”
- 024
“Some have even confided in me that they have had UFO sightings of their own. Those Members, of course, some of them wish to remain anonymous and I will keep it that way.”
- 025
“I would like to thank these three brave witnesses here. They took an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States and daggum it they are doing it and we owe them a debt of gratitude.”
- 026
“These folks, they have got nothing to gain from this and I think you are going to find out that they have endured quite a few slings and arrows.”
- 027
“They have done interviews and appeared in documentaries like ''Accidental Truth'' to get their stories out there and now they are all here to testify under oath for Congress. It has been so difficult to get here today.”
- 028
“I have said, you know, in the Baptist Church we would say that the devil is in our way and the devil has been in our way through this thing. We have run into roadblocks from Members, from the intelligence community, the Pentagon.”
- 029
“I proposed legislation to go in the FAA reauthorization that just said if an airline pilot has a sighting that when he makes that report to the FAA that it would come to Congress. But I was told that the intelligence community did not like that, and the bill was—the amendment was not even heard in committee.”
- 030
“I think it is time for this country to take back our country. We need to tell the folks at the Pentagon they work for us, daggum it. We do not work for them and that is exactly the point. This is an issue of government transparency.”
- 031
“We cannot trust a government that does not trust its people.”
- 032
“We are not bringing little green men or flying saucers into the hearing. Sorry to disappoint about half of you all. We are just going to get to the facts. We are going to uncover the cover up and I hope this is just the beginning of many more hearings and more people coming forward about this.”
- 033
“The circumstances surrounding UAPs has captivated the attention of the American people for decades, ingrained in even the minds of our Nation's leaders from Jimmy Carter to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump, Marco Rubio to Chuck Schumer, John Ratcliffe to National Security Council officials.”
- 034
“Yet, from Roswell, New Mexico to the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, the sightings of UAPs have rarely been explained by the people who have firsthand accounts of these situations.”
- 035
“This is largely due to the lack of transparency by our own government and the failure of our elected leaders to make good on their promises to release explanations and footage and mountains of over-classified documents that continue to be hidden from the American people.”
- 036
“This is not just how I feel. In fact, the American people largely believe that the government has actively covered up the truth about UAPs.”
- 037
“One poll, in particular, found that 68 percent of Americans believe that the government is hiding information about UAPs and not being honest about what we know about them and from my personal experience I believe the same thing.”
- 038
“Another poll found that nearly half of Americans believe that the Federal Government is doing a very bad or somewhat bad job of dealing with reports of UFO sightings.”
- 039
“Considering the thousands of testimoneys and videos taken on people's phones and eyewitnesses' accounts made by credible witnesses such as doctors, pilots, scientists, and active-duty service members, it is unacceptable to continue to gaslight Americans into thinking that this is not happening or that the potential of intelligent life forms exist other than humans.”
- 040
“Even more alarming is the fact that these eyewitnesses are, many times, service members and have no assurance that their lives will not be negatively impacted or even harmed by their experiences.”
- 041
“In being an active-duty service member working on an airfield, I have had conversations with many pilots where they were in fear of coming forward for retribution and/or being taken off flight status.”
- 042
“How do we know this? Because the government has said nothing to assure us otherwise. They have also done nothing to calm the concerns of over 20 percent of Americans who have reported to have seen UFOs or UAPs.”
- 043
“We are simply told not to question the government and that the government has it under control.”
- 044
“Today is the first hearing of its kind where we will attempt to get down to the bottom of what is actually happening with UAPs. But we will hear from people who have had personal sightings rather than Pentagon bureaucrats who have always been sent to stonewall our investigations.”
- 045
“Just so that the press knows, and the people know, we were even denied access to a classified briefing in a SCIF prior to this hearing due to the amount of hoops that we had to jump through to grant temporary clearance to witness Grusch, who has knowledge of classified information.”
- 046
“It is time to have an open-minded discussion on this topic, to hear the evidence and understand the magnitude of what this means not just for our Nation but for humanity.”
- 047
“Our witnesses will testify today that UAPs have posed a serious safety threat and we must understand this.”
- 048
“Now, some of the earliest reporting on this issue was a groundbreaking 2017 New York Times report which revealed research as we know now on unidentified anomalous phenomena or as many call UFOs by the Defense Intelligence Agency.”
- 049
“Mr. Graves and Commander Fravor's experiences with UAPs have also been documented by the public, not just by the New York Times but CNN and many other national news outlets.”
- 050You followed a link to this statement
“Now, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has published public reports documenting UAPs and on June 9, 2022, NASA announced that the agency is commissioning a study to, of course, examine unidentified anomalous phenomena.”
- Claim type
- Factual Assertion
- Certainty
- Certain
- Tone
- Clinical
- Specificity
- 0.90
- 051
“Now, the sheer number of reports, whistleblowers, and stories of unidentified anomalous phenomena should raise real questions and warrant investigation and oversight and that is why we are here today.”
- 052
“Now, pilots have reported encounters for years and because of the stigma around reporting these incidents we still do not have a complete picture of actually what is going on, particularly, as your witnesses will testify, on the civilian side and that is a real problem that we have today in the country.”
- 053
“Now, I understand fully the Department of Defense is hesitant to share information that could also undermine our national security by revealing information on the capabilities of our own aircraft, our sensors, and other sensitive material.”
- 054
“At the same time, many people believe that we are withholding information from them and that is dangerous also.”
- 055
“Now, we have incidents when sensors, sometimes even multiple types of sensors, detect things that we cannot explain.”
- 056
“UAPs, whatever they may be, may pose a serious threat to our military or civilian aircraft and that must be understood.”
- 057
“I also want to note that Mr. Sean Kirkpatrick, Director of the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office, the component of the DoD office that investigates UAP data, has testified before the Senate this year that his unit has found no evidence of extraterrestrial activity.”
- 058
“NASA has also stated they do not have evidence of extraterrestrial life either and we have heard this, of course, from some of our government agencies.”
- 059
“And we should remind viewers and witnesses, which I think is really important, that we also cannot share classified information in public settings.”
- 060
“I hear over and over from many agencies the stigma around reporting and investigating UAPs prevents us from getting real answers.”
- 061
“We know that whistleblowers have reported harassment, intimidation, or stigma as well and this is not acceptable.”
- 062
“If people cannot report incidents which would have national security or safety implications, then that also has serious consequences for us.”
- 063
“We know the Senate is taking up an amendment to their defense authorization bill which will create a commission with broad declassification authority, and we should all agree that that is an important step.”
- 064
“We should encourage more reporting, not less, on UAPs. The more that we understand, the safer we will be.”
- 065
“I also just want to say, more broadly, that we should look at this hearing and believe that everything is on the table as it relates to UAPs.”
- 066
“My career and training as a longtime and career educator and teacher and researcher tell me that we should never rule any thing out. We know that our space, of course, is vast and undiscovered.”
- 067
“But questions, of course, remain that people want to see data and information for themselves.”
- 068
“I believe in openness and transparency. That is also the role of Congress, and I want to trust that the American people will be able to weigh the evidence and make up their own minds.”
- 069
“As Ranking Member of this Subcommittee, I know my job would be completely impossible if whistleblowers or others feel intimidated to come before this Committee. We cannot be afraid of asking questions and we cannot be afraid of the truth.”
- 070
“I am proud to say that this hearing builds upon bipartisan work by Members of the House and Senate dating many years back which is sought to increase awareness within the Department of Defense and more—and to mandate more of Congress of UAPs.”
- 071
“Members of both parties and senior officials in multiple administrations have taken an interest in this issue and we are proud to carry and build that confidence in the American people.”
- 072
“This hearing will also not be the end of the discussion but a new chapter and start to years and years of work that many folks both in the public and within government have been working on.”
- 073
“I want to thank first our witnesses for joining us today. I want to begin by thanking you all for your service to our country and for sharing your voices today and your courage to be here as well.”
- 074
“To Mr. Graves, I am particularly grateful to you to spend some time that we had for you to share with candor some of your experiences. So, I appreciate that as well.”
- 075
“I do want to thank all the Members of our Subcommittee today and also those that are here and have waived on for their incredible interest in this issue, particularly to Congressman Burchett. I know that your leadership has brought us to this place today and I want to thank him for that as well as everyone else that has been engaged in this work.”
- 076
“It is really important that we are here in a bipartisan way to have this conversation which really to the heart of it is about national security and key to the Subcommittee's core purpose.”
- 077
“Faith in our institutions, as we all know, is at an all-time low. Partisanship and alternative facts make it too easy to doubt narrative or our institutions.”
- 078
“But this hearing will offer the public unique perspectives, building on years of reporting by both Federal agencies and the independent media.”
- 079
“Now, it is very important that we show that Democrats and Republicans in Congress can come together in a bipartisan way to cut through misinformation and to look at the facts in a serious and thoughtful manner.”
- 080
“If we are to advance oversight and public disclosure, we must also gain the broad support of the public. We will succeed getting facts out to the public faster if there is a broad public support as part of the process.”
Showing 80 of 514
Entities mentioned
15 across 1 typeEverything the statements in this source refer to. People open their own page; everything else opens in the graph.