When UFOs Bring Congress Together
Sometimes it takes something out of this world to bring Congress together on both sides of the aisle. And that is exactly what happened earlier this month with the private screening of the recently released documentary The Age of Disclosure, where members from both parties gathered in the same room to watch a film that presents what it describes as an 80-year cover-up by the U.S. government regarding the UFO phenomenon.
While it is tempting to go down the rabbit hole and explore purported evidence and information surrounding the existence of UFOs, there is simply too much material to do that route justice here. That is for another article another day. Instead, the purpose of this piece is simply to point out why the topic of UFOs is such a rare example of members of Congress being able to unite around a single cause when so typically they are polarized. And the reason is fairly simple. Something unexplainable is happening in our skies, and the skies do not discriminate based on political affiliation or even congressional borders. And if mysterious, unidentified craft are among us, for Congress, the stewards of our nation, it becomes an issue that goes far beyond intrigue and directly into questions of national security.
The Shift in 2017
This unity of interest on both sides regarding UFOs did not begin with the private screening this month. Ever since the 2017 New York Times article dropped its bombshell reporting and released the now-famous Navy UFO video footage, interest has moved from fringe to mainstream and has become a topic discussed openly online, around the dinner table, and now in the halls of Congress. That shift was made undeniably clear in the 2023 House Oversight Hearing: “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency”, when former intelligence official David Grusch testified under oath that he was “absolutely” certain the federal government possesses recovered UAPs. He further alleged the existence of a multidecade crash-retrieval and reverse-engineering program operating beyond normal congressional oversight, funded through misappropriated budgets. More controversially, he claimed that individuals working on these programs had recovered “non-human biologics” from crash sites. The Pentagon has formally denied those claims, but the testimony itself elevated the issue from curiosity to accountability conversations in front of Congress.
As mentioned earlier, I am not going to opine here on what these objects may be. That can be saved for another day. What I will say, though, is that I appreciate the fact members of Congress from both sides of the aisle are not only willing to come together on this subject, but that they are also willing to ask serious questions about it, and not in a partisan manner.
And now, with the recent screening of The Age of Disclosure, the topic clearly enjoys continued momentum, attracting attention (and questions) from GenZ on TikTok and the highest levels of elected office in Washington. The documentary features interviews with senior government, military, and intelligence figures, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and former Defense Intelligence Agency official Jay Stratton. Its director, Dan Farah, has described what he uncovered as an international race to reverse-engineer non-human technology involving adversarial nations such as Russia and China. Whether one accepts that framing or not, the fact that members of Congress are now engaging this material together is itself the political story.
My suspicion is that this conversation has far more layers than simply what is in our skies and who might be behind it. I have a feeling it will take more than an act of Congress to fully get to the bottom of all of this. But at the very least, it is encouraging to see that Congress is paying attention, asking questions, and no longer dismissing the subject outright.