'Why as legislators are we being stonewalled?': Members demand more transparency on UFO issues

A group of House lawmakers is demanding easier access to information related to UFOs — and insisting the strongest possible disclosure requirements make it into the annual defense policy bill currently being finalized.

"Whether it's little green men, American technology or worse — technology from the [Chinese Communist Party] — we need to know," said Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) at a press conference.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and other lawmakers said they were encountering resistance from the Senate Armed Services and House Intelligence committees to provisions related to UAPs — or “unidentified aerial phenomena,” the official term the U.S. government uses instead of UFOs — being included in the National Defense Authorization Act.

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) got an amendment requiring the declassification of records related to UFOs included as part of the House-passed NDAA, while Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer added a longer version as part of his chamber's version. Burchett said that Senate attempt "overcomplicated" the issue, even as members indicated they wouldn't oppose the Schumer language.

"Schumer's efforts here are probably the floor as to where we would like to see disclosure begin," said Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.). "Not to say that they're not good efforts. I think basically any step forward is a step in the right direction here."

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) said the resistance to disclosure from government officials is what leads him to stay interested in the issue.

"The pushback we got is what interests me," he said. "Every time we pull the thread — and we stumbled on something — it seems that we would get stonewalled."

Asked whether they'd seen evidence of extraterrestrial life, Gaetz said he'd viewed an image that includes "nothing that that I'm aware of having existing in our arsenal of assets" — or in those of other countries.