Rep. Eric Burleson (R-Missouri) on Tuesday called for a House Select Committee on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs) to lead a bipartisan group of lawmakers demanding answers from the Department of Defense about unknown flying objects. .
UAPs first became an issue in Congress last summer, after a series of hearings featuring a whistleblower who claimed the government was hiding knowledge about secret super-high-tech aircraft of foreign, even extraterrestrial origin. was.
bipartisan group of legislators Forms the House UAP Caucus Last fall, he focused on the issue and urged transparency and communication with the public.
Burlison, the caucus member, said the proposed task force would first focus on interrogating the Pentagon about spending that appears to be for the top-secret UAP recovery program.
“I think we owe it to the American people to be transparent about the spending that’s being used to investigate these issues,” he said in an interview on “The Hill on NewsNation.” told Blake Berman. Tuesday. “This needs to be done in a transparent manner.”
The Pentagon dismissed concerns over the spending in a report last week, insisting that all of the spending in question was related to non-UAP projects or obsolete projects. The report also reiterated that the government was not aware of any extraterrestrial spacecraft and that reported sightings were “the result of misidentification.”
Burlison said Tuesday that he was concerned that the Pentagon was not completely forthright in its denial of the UAP program. He said defense officials are not telling the truth to members of Congress privately when sharing classified information.
“In the SCIF setting, they weren’t transparent to us,” Burleson said. “So they could have presented evidence. They could have explained what these special access programs actually do. But they’re not going to do that to Congress. .”
“So, for me, it’s about time they released the kimono and showed us exactly what’s going on, because they should,” he continued. “If they’re doing good things for the American people, if they’re being responsible with taxpayer money, they should have nothing to hide.”
Burlison said he had not asked House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) about the issue, but he has already asked Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and House Tim Burchett. He said he has the support of Rep. (Republican, Tennessee). and Jared Moskowitz (Florida State).
Mr. Burchett led a similar UAP selection committee effort last year when former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) took the gavel, but Mr. McCarthy lost the House speakership. That effort was lost.
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