Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I want to thank first our witnesses for joining us today. I want to begin by thanking you all for your service to our country and for sharing your voices today and your courage to be here as well to Mr. Graves. I’m particularly grateful to you to spend some time that we had for you to share with candor some of your experiences. So I appreciate that as well.
I do want to thank all the members of our subcommittee today and also those that are here and have waved on for their incredible interests in this issue, particularly to Congressman Burchett. I know that your leadership has brought us to this place today, and I want to thank you for that as well as everyone else that’s been engaged in this work. I also want to thank the oversight staff, who I know has been working very hard to ensure that today’s hearing is serious, that it’s transparent, and that it also provides appropriate answers, as our oversight body always demands.
Now, it’s really important that we’re here in a bipartisan way to have this conversation, which really to the heart of it is about national security and key to the subcommittee’s core purpose. This is the Subcommittee on National Security of the Oversight Committee. Now, our witnesses will testify today that UAPs have posed a serious safety threat, and we must understand this more broadly.
We’re dealing with real questions that get to the heart of our faith in government. Faith in our institutions, as we all know, is at an all-time low. Partisanship and alternative facts make it too easy to doubt narrative or our institutions. But this hearing will offer the public unique perspectives, building on years of reporting by both federal agencies and the independent media.
p>Now, some of the earliest reporting on this issue was a groundbreaking 2017 New York Times report, which revealed research as we know now on unidentified anomalous phenomena of many call UFOs by the Defense Intelligence Agency. Mr. Graves and Commander Favor’s experiences with UAPs have also been documented by the public, not just by The New York Times, but CNN and many other national news outlets. Now, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has published public reports documenting UAPs. And on Thursday, June 9, 2022, NASA announced that the agency is commissioning a study to, of course, examine unidentified anomalous phenomena.
Now, the sheer number of reports, whistleblowers, and stories of unidentified anomalous phenomena should raise real questions and warrant investigation and oversight. And that’s why we are here today. Now, pilots have reported encounters for years now because of the stigma around reporting these incidents.
We still don’t have a complete picture of actually what’s going on, particularly as your witnesses will testify on the civilian side, and that is a real problem that we have today in the country. Now, it’s very important that we show that Democrats and Republicans in Congress can come together in a bipartisan way to cut through misinformation and to look at the facts in a serious and thoughtful manner.
If we are to advance oversight and public disclosure, we must also gain the broad support of the public. We will succeed getting facts out to the public faster if there is a broad public support as part of the process. Now, I understand fully the Department of Defense is hesitant to share information that could also undermine our national security by revealing information on the capabilities of our own aircraft, our sensors, and other sensitive material.
At the same time, many people believe that we’re withholding information from them, and that is dangerous. Also, I believe in openness and transparency. That is also the role of Congress, and I want to trust that the American people will be able to weigh the evidence and make up their own minds.
Now, we have incidents where sensors, sometimes even multiple types of sensors, detect things that we cannot explain. UAPs, whatever they may be, may pose a serious threat to our military or civilian aircraft, and that must be understood. Now, my career in training as a longtime and career educator and teacher and researcher tell me that we should never rule anything out.
We know that our space, of course, is vast and undiscovered. I also want to note that Mr. Sean Kirkpatrick, director of the All Domain Anomaly Resolution Office, the component of the DoD office that investigates UAP data, has testified before the Senate this year that his unit has found no evidence of extraterrestrial activity.
NASA has also stated they don’t have evidence of extraterrestrial life either. And we’ve heard this, of course, from some of our government agencies. And we should remind viewers and witnesses, which I think is really important, that we also cannot share classified information in public settings.
But questions, of course, remain that people want to see data and information for themselves. The enormous interest in the hearing today underscores the importance of a fair and open look at the evidence from witnesses who can share their unique perspectives. Now, I know I certainly have a lot of questions, and I know that all the members of our committee do as well.
We should come to this hearing with an open mind, and we should not let our existing ideas restrict us on either side. I hear over and over from many agencies the stigma around reporting and investigating UAPs prevents us from getting real answers. We know that whistleblowers have reported harassment, intimidation, or stigma as well, and this is not acceptable. If people can’t report incidents which would have national security or safety implications, then that also has serious consequences for us. As a ranking member of this subcommittee, I know my job would be completely impossible if whistleblowers or others feel intimidated to come before this committee.
We can’t be afraid of asking questions, and we can’t be afraid of the truth. I’m proud to say that this hearing builds upon bipartisan work by members of the House and Senate dating many years back, which has sought to increase awareness within the Department of Defense and to mandate more of Congress of UAPs. We know the Senate is taking up an amendment to their defense authorization bill, which will create a commission with broad declassification authority, and we should all agree that is an important step.
Members of both parties and senior officials in multiple administrations have taken an interest in this issue, and we’re proud to carry and build that confidence in the American people. This hearing will also not be the end of this discussion, but a new chapter and start to years and years of work that many folks, both in the public and within government, have been working on. We should encourage more reporting, not less on UAPs.
The more we understand, the safer we will be. We will hear testimony from witnesses today with a long record of service to the American people and with subject matter expertise. Our witnesses have a unique opportunity to share their perspective, insights and their experiences with the American people.
And I encourage all of my colleagues to engage with these difficult questions with an open mind and to follow the facts on behalf of our country. I also just want to say more broadly that we should look at this hearing and believe that everything is on the table as it relates to UAPs. I think an open mind is absolutely the best.
I want to yield two and a half minutes the remainder of my time to the representative from Florida, Representative Moskovic, for an opening statement. He also has been very much engaged in this issue, and I want to thank him for his leadership. Congressman.
Thank you. Mr. Moskowitz and I would yield back now to our chairman. Thank you.