Firsthand account of uavs and discussed National Security, Government Transparency, and their reporting on the phenomenon. Testimony from former military pilots and former Defense Department employee regarding unidentified aerial phenomena. They appear before a House Oversight subcommittee to give their firsthand account of uaps and discuss National Security, Government Transparency and reporting on the unexplained phenomena. The subcommittee hearing on unidentified anomalous phenomena or uaps will come to order. Welcome, everyone. Without objection the chair may declare a recess at any time. Additionally without objection the following members are waived on the some committee for the purpose of participating in todays hearing, miss burchard of tennessee, ms. Luna of florida, mister pitts of florida, mister burleson of missouri, mrs. Ocasio cortez of new york and miss dora los of tennessee. Without objection so ordered. For todays subcommittee hearing, the chair and Ranking Member will have 10 minutes for opening remarks, we may give you some of those minutes to other members of the party. Now im going to recognize myself for 10 minutes. Im actually going to try to get out of here at 4 00 and then give it to some of my friends over here. Good morning and welcome to the most exciting subcommittee and congress of this we, the subcommittee on National Security at the border and Foreign Affairs for discussion of unidentified anomalous phenomena. I would like to thank the brave military pilots 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. Curiosity and speculation from all walks of life have generated interest in studying what uaps are and what threats they may pose. I will say that when i was younger in school i read a book, 1966 book called flying saucers a mysterious business, for a while when i was a little younger i thought was the most important issue out there. The lack of transparency regarding uaps which was one of the themes of that book in any event it led interest in studying what they are and what threats they pose. La lack of transparency regarding uaps has fueled wild speculation and debate for decades eroding public trust in the institutions that are meant to serve and protect as is evidenced by the large number of people we have here. I want to point out in 1966 president gerald ford claimed to have seen a ufo and in 1969 in georgia jimmy carter claimed to have seen a ufo. This has led congress to establish entities to examine uaps, National Defense authorization act established the Resolution Office to conduct coordinated efforts across the department of defense and other federal agencies to detect, identify and investigate uaps. The budget remains classified prohibiting meaningful oversight from congress. In addition to aros efforts, nasa is leading an independent study on uaps to identify how data is gathered for civilian and Government Entities that can be analyzed to shed light, despite these offices being established, there is pressing demand for Government Transparency and accountability that cannot be overlooked. A problem that has been around for 50 years. The Biden Administration handling of a chinese spy balloon that violate us air pace is when example how the government is not prepared for the the Biden Administrations descriptive events showed the government continues not to be forthright between the chinese balloon being shot down, two uaps ups will be shot down earlier this year, the Us Government spent 1. 5 million in taxpayer dollars on missiles, we have seen more clarity from the Biden Administration. We must demand transparency from the department of defense, Intelligence Community and Defense Industry on uap work, the national questions about that today, congress recognizes the subject is multifaceted and requires careful datadriven approach. Today we will see clarity from these witnesses testimonies, we will seek clarity as to what can be done to improve reporting for military and civilians, committed to objective inquiry. Congress should work to ensure that knowledge is not driven by fear. Today we are not just obeying the existence of uaps but the liberating on the principles that define our public which a commitment to transparency and accountability. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today. On ways we can approve government efficiency and openness when it comes to uaps which i think each of you for your presence and your dedication to safeguarding the interests of the American People. I look forward to your testimony. I will turn it over for 21 2 or 3 minutes to the representative from tennessee. Thank you mister chairman, thank you all for being here. I want to thank everybody for making this happen today and remind everybody this is a nonpartisan issue, this has nothing to do with party politics. The coverup goes a lot deeper than that. I want to thank my colleagues, representative luna beside me here, jared moscowitz, my friend across the aisle, and incredible mind, anxious to hear his questions. Its not in my notes but if it hadnt been for matt gaetz we would still be at eggland air force base trying to get some answers. And incredible legal mind. Also i saw george knapp, they are not witnesses but they provided some statements on this subject. I seek unanimous consent to enter those statements into the record. Without objection. Would like to enter, understand now this is unclassified Public Record but as we know that is sometimes difficult for the public to get a hold of. Defense intelligence reference documents, advanced space propulsion based on spacetime metric engineering, Light Reading for some of our members. Without objection. Mr. Knapp wrote since 1969 the position of the military is ufos pose no threat to National Security and are not worthy of further study which i say thats the biggest understatement of the decade. He goes on to talk about the dismissive attitude of what was revealed in documents, reports, internal memos. Mr. Cabrera says that ufo is emerging as a major topic of global importance. I can state that as a fact. I met a fellow who came all the way from denmark to be here for this meeting so this is worldwide. I think we suspect what is going on but i thank members of congress who support our efforts to make this happen. Some have confided to me they had ufo sightings of their own. Those members wish to remain anonymous and i will keep it that way but also i think these three brave witnesses here took an oath to uphold the constitution of the United States and are doing it and we owe them a debt of gratitude. [applause] quit clapping, youre cutting in on my time. Just kidding. They ve got nothing to gain from this and you will find they have quite a few slings and arrows, need to remember them in their prayers and families, thank them for their honest testimonies. Theyve done interviews a, appeared in documentaries to get their stories out. Now they are here to testify under oath for congress. It has been difficult to get here today. In the Baptist Church we you say the devil is in our way. The devil has been in our way through this thing. Weve been in with roadblocks from the pentagon, proposed legislation for the faa reauthorization that said if an Airline Pilot has a sighting, when he makes the report to the faa it would come to congress but i was told the Intelligence Community did not like that and the amendment was not heard in committee. Its time for the country to take back our country. We need to tell the folks at the pentagon they work for us, we dont work for them and that is the point. This is an issue of Government Transparency, you cant trust a government that does not trust its peoples we are not bringing little green men or flying saucers into the hearing. We just get the facts. We will uncover the coverup and i hope this is just the beginning of many hearings of people coming forward about this and i yelled back the remainder of my time. We call on miss luna for her statement. The circumstances surrounding uaps captivated the attention of the American People for decades and even the minds of our nations leaders from jimmy carter to barack obama, Hillary Clinton to donald trump, marco rubio to chuck schumer, John Radcliffe to National SecurityCouncil Officials but from roswell, new mexico to the coast of jacksonville, florida, the sightings of uaps of really been explained by people with firsthand accounts of these situations largely due to lack of transparency by our own government and the failure of our elected leaders to make it on their promises to release explanations and footage and mountains of over classified documents that continue to be hidden from the American People. It is not just how i feel. The American People largely believe the government is actively covered up the truth about uaps. One pole in particular found 68 of americans believe the government is hiding information about uaps and not being honest about what we know about the man from my personal experience i believe the same thing. Another paul found half of americans believe the federal government is doing a bad or somewhat bad job of dealing with reports of ufo sightings as representative burchett reference, you can tell that is happening. Considering thousands of testimonies and videos taken on peoples phones and eyewitnesses by credible witnesses such as doctors, pilots, scientists and activeDuty Service Members, unacceptable to continue to gaslight americans into thinking this is not happening or the potential of intelligent life forms exist other than humans. Even more alarming is the fact that these eyewitnesses are servicemembers with no assurance their lives will not be negatively impacted or even harmed by their experiences. Being an active Duty Service Member working on an airfield, i have had conversations with many pilots in fear of coming forward for fear of retribution and or being taken off flight status. The government has said nothing to assure us otherwise. Also nothing to calm the concerns of 20 of americans who reported to have seen ufos or uaps. We are told not to question the government and the government has it under control. Today is the first hearing of its kind to get to the bottom of what is happening with uaps. We will hear from people who have had personal sightings rather than pentagon bureaucrats who have always been such to stonewall investigations. Just as the press knows and the people know, we are denied access to a classified briefing, due to the hoops we had to jump through to grant temporary clearance to witness russia has knowledge of classified information. Its time to have an openminded discussion on this topic, to hear the evidence and understand the magnitude of what this means not just for our nation but humanity. I yield the rest of my time. Thank you very much. I would like to thank you for bringing this topic to my attention. Now we recognize Ranking Member garcia. Thank you, mister chairman. I want to thank our witnesses for joining us today and begin by thanking you all for your service to our country and sharing your voices today and your courage to be heard as well. To mr. Graves, grateful to you you spent the time we have to share with candor your experiences. Appreciate that as well. I want to thank all members of the subcommittee today and those that are here, your incredible interest in this issue particularly congressman burchett, you brought us to this place it and i thank you for that and everyone else who has been engaged in this work. I want to thank the oversight staff who has been working hard to ensure that today appearing is serious, transparent and also provides appropriate answers as out oversight body demands. Its important we are here in a bipartisan way to have this conversation, which is about National Security and key to the subcommittees the subcommittee on National Security, our witnesses will testify today that uaps pose a serious threat and we must understand this. Or broadly we are dealing with your questions to get to the heart of our faith in government. Faith in our institutions is at an alltime low. Partisanship and alternative facts make it too easy to doubt our institutions. This hearing will offer the public unique perspectives. Building on years of recording by federal agencies and the independent media. 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 which many car ufos by the Defense Intelligence agency. Mr. Graves, what is document it by the public, not just the New York Times, cnn and many other National News outlets. The office of the director of National Intelligence published public reports documenting uaps and on june 9th, 2022, nasa announced the agencies commissioning a study to examine unidentified anomalous phenomena. A number of reports, whistleblowers and stories of unidentified anomalous phenomena should raise questions on investigation and oversight and that is why we are here today. Pilots reported encounters for years but because of the stigma around reporting these incidents we dont have a complete picture of what is going on. Particularly as our witnesses will testify on the civilian side and thats a real problem. Its important that we show democrats and republicans in congress can come together in a bipartisan way to cut the misinformation and look at the facts in a serious and thoughtful manner. If we are to advance oversight we must gain the broad support of the public. We will succeed getting facts the public faster if there is a broad public support as part of the process. Understand the department of defense is hesitant to share information that could undermine National Security by revealing information on the cape release of our own aircraft, sensors and other sensor sensitive material. At the same time many people believe we are withholding information from the man that is dangerous also. I believe in openness and transparency that is also the role of congress and i want to trust the American People to way the evidence and make up their own minds. We have incidents with sensors, multiple sensors that detect things we cannot explain. Uaps whatever they may be may pose a serious threat to our military or civilian aircraft and that must be understood. My career and training as a longtime career educator and teacher and researcher tell me we should never rule anything out. We know that our space is vast and undiscovered. I also note mr. Sean kirkpatrick of the anomaly Resolution Office, the component of the dod office of investigation of uap data has testified before the senate this year that his unit has found no evidence of extraterrestrial activity. Nasa has stated they dont have evidence of extraterrestrial life either. We heard this from some of our Government Agencies and we should remind viewers and witnesses is important we also cannot share classified information in public settings. Questions remain that people want to see data and information for themselves. This hearing underscores the import of a fair and open look at the evidence from witnesses who can share their unique perspectives. I certainly have a lot of questions and all the members of the committee do as well. We should come to this hearing with an open mind and not let existing ideas restrict us on either side. Are here for many agencies the stigma around reporting and investigating uaps prevents us from getting real answers. Whistleblowers reported harassment, intimidation face stigma as well and this is not acceptable. If people cant report incidents which would have National Security or safety implications there are serious consequences for us. As Ranking Member of the subcommittee i know it is that at my job would be impossible if whistleblowers or others feel intimidated to come before the committee. We cant be afraid of asking questions and cant be afraid of the truth. Is hearing built on by bipartisan work by the house and senate dating many years back to increase awareness into the part of defense and to mandate more. The senate is taking up an amendment to a Defense Authorization bill to create a condition with broad authority, we can show that thats an important step. Members of both parties and senior official in multiple administrations have taken an interest in this issue and will build the confidence in the American People. This hearing will also not be the end of the discussion but a new chapter and start to years of work many folks in the public and in government have been working on. We should encourage more reporting, not less on uaps. The more we understand the safer we