In a seemingly rare show of bipartisan agreement on priorities within the U.S. House of Representatives, a group of lawmakers are pressing House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to establish a select committee to continue investigating Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena or UAPs.
In a letter to McCarthy, Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), Tim Burchett (R-TN), and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) note the testimony this week before the Oversight Committee in which an Air Force veteran said the Pentagon "has been keeping Congress in the dark" about UAPs.
"Historically UAPs have been called by other names—"unidentified flying objects" or UFSs in particular—but despite the changing alphabet soup, our concern and the concern of our constituents remain constant," the letter explains.
"Mr. Speaker, we ask that you immediately establish a Select Committee, outside the jurisdiction of any standing committee, and with subpoena authority, to go about the task of collecting information from the Pentagon and elsewhere for the benefit of the public and to discharge our constitutional, legislative and oversight roles," lawmakers say before explaining the importance of getting to the bottom of UAPs.
"This issue is much bigger than the news cycle: it represents a confluence of concerning governmental actions that indicates a lack of forthrightness on the part of the Pentagon and intelligence community. No governmental program, no matter how sensitive, can be outside the view of Congress," the letter emphasizes. "And yet, the Executive Branch routinely redacts and routinely withholds information in other domains that we are entitled to, and is doing so here."
The lawmakers from both sides of the aisle explain to McCarthy that, "[b]y establishing a Select Committee to investigate the United States government's response to UAPs, the 118th Congress will have an opportunity to work through more significant issues of government oversight (including lack of budget transparency, overclassification, and unwillingness to respond to Congressional oversight), on a discrete issue that is readily understandable by the public, and which is of grave concern to our nation."
I joined @RepMattGaetz, @RepLuna, and @RepMoskowitz in sending a letter to Speaker McCarthy requesting a select committee on UAPs. pic.twitter.com/m5YXfjPgH8
— Rep. Tim Burchett (@RepTimBurchett) July 28, 2023
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