Why is Congress talking about aliens again?

A former military officer testified to House representatives at the end of July that the military was withholding information regarding UFOs from Congress. The claims garnered bipartisan interest, sparking new conversations about what the officials know about possible alien sightings. However, this is not the first time the government has been interested in the topic of extraterrestrial life.

Why is the government interested in UFOs right now?

The House Oversight subcommittee had a highly anticipated meeting with retired military officer turned whistleblower, David Grusch, along with two other military veterans, to discuss UAPs (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena). He alleged that the military hid evidence of non-human extraterrestrial life, claiming that non-human "biologics" were discovered at crash sites, per NPR. "My testimony is based on information I have been given by individuals with a longstanding track record of legitimacy and service to this country — many of whom also shared compelling evidence in the form of photography, official documentation, and classified oral testimony."

Grusch also claimed that the U.S. had likely been aware of "non-human" activity since the 1930s and had run a "multi-decade" program reverse-engineering crashed UFOs, which was promptly denied by the Pentagon, per The Associated Press. Defense Department spokeswoman Sue Gough said in a statement that they hadn't discovered "any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently." Grusch added that he faced retaliation for speaking out against the government, but did not elaborate on specifics.

"We're going to uncover the cover-up, said Rep. Tim Burchett, a Republican from Tennessee, per CBS News. "I hope this is just the beginning of many more hearings and many more people coming forward about this."

What have they said in the past?

There has been a marked increase in UFO sightings in the last couple of years, with over 350 new reports of UAPs since March of 2021, CNN wrote. More recently, there has also been an uptick in interest since the discovery of the Chinese surveillance balloon. While many UAPs have been debunked, "some of these uncharacterized UAP appear to have demonstrated unusual flight characteristics or performance capabilities and require further analysis," according to the 2022 annual UAP report.

Even those in the military, like Air Force General Glen VanHerck "haven't ruled out anything," according to Reuters. He added that he'll "Iet the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out." However, the government says it hasn't found any evidence of intelligent alien life. "I have not seen anything in those holdings to date that would suggest that there has been an alien visitation, an alien crash or anything like that," Ronald Moultrie, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security, told Reuters. 

Despite this, many government leaders have voiced their support for further investigation of UAPs. "There's footage and records of objects in the skies…We can't explain how they moved, their trajectory," said former President Barack Obama in 2021. "And so, I think that people still take seriously trying to investigate and figure out what that is." Congress members also have concerns regarding UFOs. "If there aren't any UFOs, then why's the federal government spending so much time and effort to stop any kind of hearings, and why don't they release these files that they have? Every file I've seen is so redacted it looks like a piece of Swiss cheese," remarked Burchett. The recent hearing was the first to feature "public, unclassified testimony from servicemembers whose interest is in exposing what they believe they witnessed," according to the Los Angeles Times.

"If UAP are foreign drones, it is an urgent national security problem," Ryan Graves, a former Navy pilot said during the hearing. "If it is something else, it is an issue for science. In either case, unidentified objects are a concern for flight safety."