National Defense Authorization Act

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National Defense Authorization Act
Obverse of the Great Seal of the United States .
Obverse of the Great Seal of the United States . Photo: U.S. Government · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons
TypeDocument
Also known asNDAA
On the Timeline1 event, 2022

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is the annual U.S. law that sets the budget and policy of the Department of Defense. Since 2021 successive NDAAs have been the main way Congress has shaped government work on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), creating the Pentagon's UAP office, protecting people who report UAP information and requiring records to be collected.[1][2]

FY2022: a UAP office in law

Illustration of a government hearing
Illustration: a government hearing. An artist's impression drawn for this site, not a photograph of the event.

The NDAA for fiscal year 2022, enacted in December 2021, gave the Pentagon's UAP office a statutory basis, leading to the creation of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). It also broadened the meaning of UAP to include objects in space and under water as well as in the air, including "transmedium" objects that appear to move between them.[2][3]

FY2023: authorised disclosures

Illustration of an object over the sea
Illustration: an object over the sea. An artist's impression drawn for this site, not a photograph of the event.

Section 1673 of the fiscal 2023 NDAA created a channel for people to make "authorized disclosures" of UAP information to AARO and to Congress, overriding non-disclosure agreements for that purpose and protecting them against reprisal. The law also set out three categories of UAP: airborne objects not immediately identifiable, transmedium objects and submerged objects.[2][3]

FY2024: the UAP Disclosure Act

Chuck Schumer 's 2nd official Congress photo
Chuck Schumer 's 2nd official Congress photo Photo: U.S. Senate Photographic Studio/Jeff McEvoy · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

In 2023 Senators Chuck Schumer and Mike Rounds proposed the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act, modelled on the law that released records on President Kennedy's assassination, with an independent review board and power to take over UAP materials held by private contractors. The version included in the fiscal 2024 NDAA required government UAP records to be collected and released over time, but the review board and other provisions were removed, reportedly because of opposition from lawmakers allied with the defence industry.[1][4]

Later years

Illustration of a jet meeting an unknown object
Illustration: a jet meeting an unknown object. An artist's impression drawn for this site, not a photograph of the event.

Advocates tried without success to add the full Disclosure Act to later NDAAs. The fiscal 2026 NDAA, signed in December 2025, gave AARO new mandates, including briefings to Congress on military intercepts of UAP by North American commands since 2004.[5]

On the UAP Timeline

Kirsten Gillibrand , official photo, 116th Congress.
Kirsten Gillibrand , official photo, 116th Congress. Photo: US Senate Photography · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

References

This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.

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