Mace & Grothman Open Joint Hearing on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena

WASHINGTON- Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation Chairwoman Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs Chairman Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) delivered opening statements at today's joint subcommittee hearing on "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth." The lawmakers emphasized that more transparency is needed to provide the American people with information about UAPs.

Below are key excerpts from Subcommittee Chairwoman Mace's opening remarks.

"This hearing is intended to help Congress and the American people to learn the extent of the programs and activities our government has engaged in with respect to UAPs-and what knowledge it has yielded. That includes, of course, any knowledge of extraterrestrial life or technology of non-human origin. If government-funded research on UAPs has NOT yielded any useful knowledge, we need to know that, too. Taxpayers deserve to know how much has been invested. They shouldn't be kept in the dark to spare the Pentagon embarrassment.

[…]"We will also hear from the witnesses today allegations of UAP-related misinformation and disinformation by government officials of which they are personally aware and directly experienced. And we will hear testimony today concerning recent revelations about a purportedly secret UAP program whose existence and findings may have been improperly withheld from Congress."

Below are key excerpts from Subcommittee Chairman Grothman's opening remarks.

"Since the last hearing, I have led several briefings with government agencies to deepen my understanding of these issues. First, the Department of Defense Inspector General's office informed us that DoD does not have a streamlined process for servicemembers to report UAP activity. Since then, the Joint Chiefs have implemented standards for UAP reporting across the services. The Intelligence Community Inspector General informed us that whistleblowers often fear severe retaliation for reporting mismanagement of highly sensitive government projects or information.

[…]

"I hope our witnesses today will be able to provide evidence and content that is worthwhile in our pursuits of eliminating government waste and increasing transparency. To help alleviate some of the roadblocks, I am supportive of the measures that were included in last year's National Defense Authorization Act to increase transparency and improve record keeping measures when it comes to UAPs, but I believe there's still more work that can be done."