For the first time in over 50 years, a House subcommittee will hold a public hearing next week on unidentified flying objects (UFO). Here’s all about the congressional hearing.
UFO Public Hearing: All you need to know
The public hearing on Unexplained Aerial Sightings will focus on a Pentagon program established in 2021 following a preliminary assessment by the US intelligence community. The assessment is a set of 144 reports of “unidentified aerial phenomena” occurring since 2004. The House Intelligence Committee’s subcommittee on counter-terrorism, counter-intelligence, and counter-proliferation will hold a public hearing on May 17 according to the subcommittee’s chairman, Rep. André Carson.
“Congress hasn’t held a public hearing on unidentified aerial phenomena (UFOs) in over 50 years. That will change next week when I lead a hearing in @HouseIntel on this topic & the national security risk it poses. Americans need to know more about these unexplained occurrences,” Carson tweeted on Tuesday.
The hearing will focus on the Pentagon’s Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group. The witnesses will include Ronald S. Moultrie, undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security, and Scott W. Bray, deputy director of Naval intelligence.
In 1966, a hearing was organized by Gerald R. Ford, the then-House Republican minority leader from Michigan. It was based on hearing responses to UFO reports by more than 40 people, including 12 police officers. Ford called the Air Force’s “swamp gas” explanation “flippant”. Two years later, another hearing was held with scientists who were not from the Air Force. Later, in 1969, the US Air Force concluded that no UFO had threatened national security and that the UFOs did not display advanced technology. Hence, concluding that additional investigation was unwarranted.
More on the UFO debate
The hearings will focus on following up on a declassified report released last June. The report found that more than 140 UFO sightings recorded since 2004 could not be explained.
“We currently lack data to indicate any UAP are part of a foreign collection program or indicative of a major technological advancement by a potential adversary,” the report stated.
“The American people expect and deserve their leaders in government and intelligence to seriously evaluate and respond to any potential national security risks – especially those we do not fully understand,” said Carson. Carson is the chairman of the subcommittee. “Since this is an area of high public interest, any undue secrecy can serve as an obstacle to solving the mystery, or it could prevent us from finding solutions to potential vulnerabilities,” he added.
According to Adam Schiff, this will “allow the public to hear directly from subject matter experts and leaders in the Intelligence Community on one of the greatest mysteries of our time, and to break the cycle of excessive secrecy and speculation with truth and transparency”. Schiff is a California Democrat and also the Chairman of the House intelligence committee. “The federal government and intelligence community have a critical role to play in contextualizing and analyzing reports,” he added.
