WASHINGTON—Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets Chairwoman Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) delivered opening remarks at Tuesday’s hearing titled “Restoring Public Trust Through UFO/UAP Transparency and Whistleblower Protection.”
In her opening statement, Task Force Chairwoman Luna highlighted the lack of transparency from the federal government and intelligence communities on the research and disclosure of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs). Task Force Chairwoman Luna also reiterated the importance of addressing threats to U.S. national security by (UFOs or now known as UAPs and the need for the federal government to acknowledge them.
Read the Congresswoman's full statement below:
Good morning, and welcome to this hearing regarding UAP disclosures.
For too long, the issue of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena – commonly known as UAPs – has been shrouded in secrecy, stigma, and in some cases outright dismissal.
Today, I want to state clearly: this is not science fiction or creating speculation.
This is about national security, government accountability, and the American people’s right to the truth.
I have now spoken to a number of whistleblowers from the military, to include at the infamous Eglin AFB incident that occurred when myself and former Rep Matt Gaetz as well as Rep Burchett followed up on a lead from multiple active-duty air force pilot whistleblowers that alleged that the USAF was covering up UAP activity at Eglin AFB.
We have heard from a number of whistleblowers, specifically military pilots, that the reason for not coming forward publicly is out of fear that speaking out would cost them their flight status, and potentially their careers.
That is unacceptable.
We cannot protect our airspace if our best-trained observers are silenced.
We cannot advance science if we refuse to ask questions.
And we cannot maintain trust in government if we keep the American people in the dark.
Now, Congress has tried to fix this problem.
Congress tried to create formal channels – through the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, also known as AARO and the Intelligence Community Inspector General – for service members and officials to make disclosures.
But the reality: the reports that come in are too often brushed aside, slow-walked, or met with skepticism rather than serious investigation. Recently, the former AARO director known as Sean Kirpatrick attacked our witness and members on this committee. It should be noted that he is a documented liar and brings into question what his purpose at AARO really was if it was not to follow up on investigations and disclose his findings to Members of Congress.
A former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, Chris Mellon, described a report published by ARRO that “found no evidence that any USG investigation, academic-sponsored research, or official review panel has confirmed that any sighting of a UAP represented extraterrestrial technology,” as “the most error-ridden and unsatisfactory government report I can recall reading during or after decades of government service.” Mellon further noted that this was the first ARRO report submitted to Congress without the Director of National Intelligence’s sign-off and seemingly excluded input from “any of the scholars or experts who have studied and written extensively on this topic as would normally be the case in another field.” Mellon determined that the report failed to fulfill the congressional mandate under which it was required, omitted entire agencies with “known investigations or activities relating to UAP,” and omitted any discussion of efforts to hide classified or unclassified information about UAP. Such efforts were unaddressed by the report despite the existence of agency records and investigations concerning them, including at US Customs and Border Protection.
If we set up offices and oversight bodies only to let them become graveyards for testimony or worse yet, ruses for pretending to investigate when in actuality, there was no follow up, then we are not doing our jobs.
In recent months, Congress has also been presented with evidence that points to technologies that to our knowledge, are beyond our current capabilities.
It is our duty as elected representatives to follow the facts, wherever they lead, and to ensure those facts are not buried under classification stamps or bureaucratic excuses.
Let me be clear: whether UAPs represent adversarial technology, natural phenomena, or something beyond current human understanding, Congress has a responsibility to investigate.
If these objects are foreign in origin, they pose a direct threat to our national security.
If they represent something unknown, they demand rigorous scientific inquiry – not ridicule, not secrecy, and not silence.
The stakes are high.
Adversarial nations are not waiting for us to catch up – they are studying these phenomena aggressively as well and multiple nations have also announced their own parliamentary investigation into this very topic.
If we continue to hide information from ourselves, we risk strategic surprises.
If we continue to ignore our pilots and service members as well as the countless government whistleblowers, we risk losing their trust.
And if we continue to shield the truth from the public, we risk eroding the very foundation of democratic accountability.
That is why this hearing matters.
This is not about fueling speculation.
This is about demanding basic transparency from the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community and/or military contractors.
It is about asking the questions every American has the right to ask: What do we know? What don’t we know? And why, in a free society are we still being told so little?
A major barrier to the Committee’s inquiry into UAPs has been a lack of cooperation and transparency from the DoD and the Intelligence Community (IC). In preparation for previous UAP hearings, the Committee repeatedly asked DoD to allow Members to view videos and files relating to UAP incidents. Unfortunately, DoD notified Committee staff that due to the Department’s special access program (SAP) rules, only members of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) and the Defense Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee (HAC-D) were allowed to be “read in” on such programs. For a non-committee Member to be allowed to view these documents and videos, individual Members must be approved by the Chairman and Ranking Member of both HASC and HAC-D. Independent SAP oversight has presented a consistent problem for Congress as the program’s budgets are classified. Additionally, oversight reporting to Congress is classified, and is only provided to the authorizing and appropriations committees of jurisdiction.
The American people are not fragile.
They do not need to be shielded like children from reality.
What they cannot tolerate – what they will not forgive – is a government that withholds the truth and punishes those who dare to speak out.
I want to close with this:
Future generations will look back on this moment and ask what we did when presented with the unknown.
Did we look away, embarrassed or afraid? Or did we pursue the truth with courage?
I intend to be on the side of truth, transparency, and accountability, and I hope my colleagues on this Task Force will be as well.
To quote a few elected officials:
Senator Schumer: “Multiple credible sources” allege a constitutional crisis over UFOs.
Senator Rounds: “They are brilliant individuals.”
“They’re not making this stuff up.”
Our current Secretary of State Rubio: “Very high clearances and high positions within our government.”
Senator McConnell: “Sane,” “Credible”
The witnesses today are not alone, far from it. In fact, 34 senior military, government, and intelligence officials have broken their silence. This includes Senator Rubio, Senator Rounds, Senator Gillibrand, General Jim Clapper, the former director of the Government’s UAP task force, the former head of aviation security on the White House national security council, a former secretary of defense, and many more. To quote Senator Rubio in the upcoming documentary Age of Disclosure: “even presidents have been operating on a need-to-know basis but that begins to spin out of control.” And to quote Senator Gillibrand who went public in a upcoming documentary, “it’s not acceptable to have secret parts of government that no one ever sees.” It is time for the fundamental truths around UAP to be revealed to our nation’s leaders and to the public.
It is time for the US government to exercise transparency.