Why I'm glad my colleagues in Congress are finally taking UFOs more seriously

This article was originally featured in the Washington Examiner

After many decades of silence on the topic, the federal government is finally getting in on the conversation about unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs, also known as UFOs .

It’s about time.

Our government has been surprisingly quiet about the topic for many decades despite the many reports of extraordinary UAP sightings from our military personnel . These more extraordinary UAPs appear to defy conventional physics and show a distinct interest in very sensitive U.S. military airspace. Many UFOs are misidentified weather phenomena, aircraft, or balloons. Some represent U.S. or foreign military technology. Others, however, do not appear to fall into any of these categories and could be vehicles controlled by an unknown source. We need to know what these things are, how they operate, who or what is controlling them, and what they are doing.

We were supposed to get a fresh start towards new answers in June 2021, when the Pentagon released an unclassified report on the existence of UAPs.

Unfortunately, of the 144 reported UAP encounters the report discussed, it provided an explanation for just one. Who on Earth wants to read a report that provides information on less than 1% of the encounters it is supposed to address?

Then, in November 2021, the Department of Defense announced it was starting a new office to collect information on UAPs called the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (try saying that five times fast), but I’ve heard very little information coming out of this department since it was established. This May, the House Intelligence Committee held a public hearing on the existence of UAPs.

Unfortunately, we got hosed once again. The hearing was split into two parts: a closed-door classified hearing and a public hearing. I am not on the House Intelligence Committee, so even I wasn’t permitted into the classified hearing. I did, however, attend the entire public hearing but was not allowed to ask any questions of my own.

The results were beyond disappointing. The two Pentagon officials who testified provided very few satisfying answers to the members' questions. It’s unclear whether this was because they truly didn’t know the answers or because they weren’t allowed to provide them, but it doesn’t matter. The result is the same either way.

The maddening thing is there are much better witnesses who could, and should, testify before Congress that would be much more helpful. There was a Navy pilot in the hearing room who reported UAP encounters, and he could have personally testified about his experience, but they didn’t let him.

The public can’t be content with this kind of noninformation coming from our federal government. Our leaders cannot claim they’re being transparent with the public by publishing reports and holding public hearings if they provide zero helpful information.

This lack of transparency isn’t just unfair to the public, but it could put the safety of our pilots in jeopardy. Plenty of military pilots have reported UAP encounters that have no logical explanation, and some of them have warned it was only a matter of time before an aircraft got into a midair collision with an unexplained object. Yet despite these warnings and reports, the first standardized UAP reporting structure wasn’t established until 2019.

So how do we fix the problems with how our government addresses UAP sightings?

First, the Pentagon needs to release all the records it has on this subject. No more classified vs. unclassified briefings, and no more bogus reports full of useless information. Pure transparency. The public can handle it.

Next, we need to bring in members of our military who personally reported encounters with UAPs to testify before Congress in an unclassified hearing so the public can hear what they have to say.

We also need to get rid of the stigma that comes with reporting UAP sightings in our military. Service members who report UAP sightings are patriots who are doing their jobs to the best of their ability, but many of them have not been treated as such. They have been mocked by their colleagues for simply reporting what they saw, and that kind of behavior needs to end.

Congress recently took a positive step toward normalizing the UAP reporting process. This year’s National Defense Authorization Act included an amendment that would establish a secure system for receiving reports of UAP encounters and would require this system to make yearly reports to Congress on its findings. This is a great step in the right direction, but these findings must be public so everyone can know how this system is working and what our government is learning.

People deserve to know the truth about these UAPs, whatever that truth may be.

Rep. Tim Burchett is a Republican member of the House of Representatives. He represents Tennessee's 2nd Congressional District.