Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York said Congress would soon receive an update on UFOs from the Pentagon and that the meeting was “a top priority for me.”
The New York senator is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee's subcommittee on “Emerging Threats and Capabilities,” which tracks UFOs, also known as UAPs, or “unidentified anomalous phenomena.”
“It's a priority for me. I think it's really important that we continue to keep the information out there.” Gillibrand recently Matt Lasl's DC “Ask a Pol” podcast.
She said she wanted a “progress report on how many unidentified aerial phenomena have been assessed and analyzed.”
“We want to continue to build the credibility of this office and allow more members of the public to come forward with sightings,” the New York Democrat said.
A year ago, Americans reported seeing giant white balloons flying over the Midwest, which later turned out to be a Chinese government spy operation.
The Department of Defense, which secretly monitored the device, only acknowledged the existence of the mysterious balloons after members of the public reported the UFOs, causing a public uproar.
The Department of Defense's All-Spectrum Anomaly Resolution Agency investigates UFOs and recently appointed John Kosloski, a national security adviser with a background in quantum optics and cryptography, as its director.
Gillibrand indicated she expects Kosloski to testify at a hearing to be held after the Nov. 5 election.
Last year, senators argued that AARO was underfunded.
Gillibrand, a Democrat, is running for re-election this fall.
She was selected by then-Governor Paterson in 2009 to fill the Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton. Gillibrand won a special election in 2010 to retain her seat and was re-elected to full terms in 2012 and 2018.
Her Republican opponent this fall, former New York Police Department detective Mike Supply-Corn, said Ms Gillibrand's focus may be misguided.
“While there's no doubt that the government must do everything in its power to protect our citizens from foreign threats, our state and our country would surely be better served if Governor Gillibrand held hearings about the dangerous illegal immigrants streaming into our country, rather than the dangerous illegal immigrants flying around our skies,” Supplycone said.
“While the senator is searching for UFOs, the people of New York are trying to find her so they can find money to go to the grocery store and protect themselves from street crime.”
