Members of congress say they’re continuing to “pull back the curtain” on UFOs. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., delivered the opening statement at a House Oversight Committee hearing on the subject on Wednesday, Nov. 13.
“I’m not going to name names, but there are certain individuals who didn’t want this hearing to happen because they feared what might be disclosed. But we stood firm,” Mace said. “No amount of outside pressure would ever keep me from pursuing a subject to ground come hell or high water.”
The hearing was called “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth.”
The title refers to UPAs, which is the acronym that replaced UFOs to describe mysterious airborne objects.
The last hearing happened in the summer of 2023 following career intelligence official David Grusch‘s allegations that the Pentagon is operating a secret UFO retrieval program.
The Pentagon denied the accusations. However, its office created a new website where the public can access declassified information about reported sightings.
On Wednesday, lawmakers heard from multiple witnesses, including former Pentagon official Luis Elizondo, about what they have seen and heard about UPAs.
Elizondo, the former head of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, said that the government hid information.
“Excessive secrecy has led to grave misdeeds against loyal civil servants, military personnel and the public, all to hide the fact that we are not alone in the cosmos,” Elizondo said. “A small cadre within our own government involving the UAP topic has created a culture of suppression and intimidation that I have personally been victim to, along with many of my former colleagues.”
Elizondo asked congress to enact legislation protecting whistleblowers who are too afraid to come forward about government operations.
Before the hearing, a large line formed with people who wanted to get inside because the topic is generating a lot of interest.
NASA released a report declaring no evidence exists to confirm that aliens are behind reported UAP sightings.
