The UAP Disclosure Act

About UAP Disclosure Act

The full story, section by section

The story of UAP Disclosure Act in 6 parts. Tap any part to read it in full.

1. BackgroundThe proposal came amid congressional frustration over UAP secrecy.Read this part → Illustration drawn for this site — not a photograph.
2. The Senate proposalThe announcement by Schumer and Rounds was titled as modelled on the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act.Read this part → Senator Chuck Schumer, who led the amendment with Mike Rounds · Photo: David Shankbone, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
3. OutcomeAccording to The Guardian, a group of House Republicans, including Armed Services chair Mike Rogers and Intelligence chair Mike Turner, worked to block the review board.Read this part → Illustration drawn for this site — not a photograph.
4. ImplementationIn NARA memo AC 13.2024, the chief records officer, Laurence Brewer, told agency records managers that the law required every agency to review, identify and organise its UAP records for public disclosure and transfer to NARA by October 2024.Read this part → Illustration drawn for this site — not a photograph.
5. ReactionThe enacted provisions were widely seen as a watered-down version of the original:Read this part → Tim Burchett, who said supporters had been "completely hosed" · Photo: Danandrewsreporter, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
6. Related ideas on disclosureThe UAP timeline published with Michael Shellenberger's 2024 congressional testimony records earlier discussion of how official disclosure might happen:Read this part → Illustration drawn for this site — not a photograph.

Read the full UAP Disclosure Act article →

Key people

The people at the centre of the story — witnesses, investigators, officials and sceptics:

• Chuck SchumerCharles Schumer is an American politician who has served as a United States senator from New York since 1999 and has led the Senate Democratic Caucus. In 2023, he and Republican senator Mike Rounds i…
• Mike RoundsMike Rounds is an American businessman and Republican politician who has served as a United States senator from South Dakota since 2015, following two terms as the state's governor from 2003 to 2011.…
• David GruschDavid Grusch is a former U.S. Air Force officer and intelligence official who publicly claimed in 2023 that the United States government runs secret programs to recover and reverse-engineer non-human…
• Sean KirkpatrickSean Michael Kirkpatrick is an American physicist and former intelligence official who served as the first director of the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office from July 2022 to December 2…
• Tim BurchettTim Burchett is an American Republican politician who has served in the U.S. House of Representatives for Tennessee's 2nd congressional district since January 2019, following prior service as a state…
• Ross CoulthartRoss Coulthart is an Australian investigative journalist and author who spent decades working in television current affairs before shifting his focus to unidentified flying objects. In 2021, he publi…
• Michael ShellenbergerMichael Shellenberger is an American writer and political activist known for his ecomodernist views, books on various public issues, and unsuccessful runs for governor of California. In 2024, he publ…
• Daniel SheehanDaniel Peter Sheehan is an American constitutional and public-interest lawyer born in 1945 who has worked on notable cases including the Pentagon Papers, the Watergate break-in, and the Karen Silkwoo…
• Robert BigelowRobert Thomas Bigelow is an American businessman from Las Vegas who made a fortune in real estate and the Budget Suites of America hotel chain. He founded Bigelow Aerospace to develop expandable spac…
• John PetersenJohn Petersen is an American futurist, military veteran, and founder of the Arlington Institute, a think tank that studies high-impact global events and UFO-related scenarios. Active from 1993 to 202…
• Christopher MellonChristopher Karl Mellon is an American former Senate intelligence staffer and Defense Department official who worked on defense and intelligence oversight from 1985 until leaving government service. …
• Jacques ValléeJacques Vallée is a French computer scientist, internet pioneer, venture capitalist, author, astronomer, and ufologist born in 1939. He began his career as an astronomer, co-developing NASA's first d…
• Marcia SmithMarcia S. Smith is an American space-policy analyst who spent 31 years at the Congressional Research Service specializing in space activities and authored the 1976 UFO survey report titled The UFO En…
• Jimmy CarterJames Carter served as the 39th president of the United States and the 76th governor of Georgia, and he was the only U.S. president known to have reported seeing a UFO.

Related cases & events

Events and sightings linked to UAP Disclosure Act:

🗓️ Event · 5 min readFY2023 NDAA UAP provisionsThe James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, signed by President Biden on December 23, 2022, established extensive provisions regarding unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP). The law created a secure reporting method for curre…🗓️ Event · 7 min readDaniel Sheehan and the Blue Book photosConstitutional lawyer Daniel Sheehan claimed that in May 1977 he viewed classified Project Blue Book materials at the Library of Congress, where he saw photographs of a crashed disc-shaped craft in the snow. He stated that he secretly traced symbols from the …🗓️ Event · 6 min readBigelow's contact contingency planning (1999)In 1999, Robert Bigelow proposed that his research institute, the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS), develop a private contingency plan in case humans were found to share the Earth with controlling non-human entities. During that same year, NIDS…🗓️ Event · 4 min readArlington Institute contact scenario exercisesThe Arlington Institute, founded by John Petersen, ran planning exercises in September 2003 involving physicist Hal Puthoff. The exercises explored how governments and society might react to confirmed contact with non-human intelligence or official UFO disclo…🗓️ Event · 3 min readMellon's first steps as presidentFormer intelligence official Christopher Mellon stated on a 2021 podcast that, if he were president, he would first want to examine the Department of Energy's special programs regarding unidentified anomalous phenomena. Mellon has a long history of advocating…🗓️ Event · 4 min readCoulthart's sources go quiet (2021)In December 2021, Australian investigative journalist Ross Coulthart stated that his sources for the book In Plain Sight had gone quiet due to a clandestine group controlling the UAP issue with intense security. Because he provided no names, the claim could n…📅 Year · 3 min read2023 in UFO historyThe text is about UFO and UAP events in 2023, including government disclosures, congressional hearings, and the downing of a Chinese balloon over North America. Key developments included whistleblower David Grusch alleging secret crash-retrieval programs, NAS…🗓️ Event · 3 min readUAP hearingsPublic hearings in the U.S. Congress on UFOs and UAP, from 1966 to the whistleblower hearings of 2023–2025.📅 Year · 3 min read1977 in UFO historyThe text outlines UFO and UAP events and claims from 1977, including alleged government cover-ups, crashes, and sightings. Key occurrences involved witnesses in Council Bluffs, Iowa, an airman at Ellsworth Air Force Base, and a NASA safety chief reporting on …

Programs, organizations & documents

The official programs, groups and papers involved:

📄 Document · 7 min read2026 UAP records releaseThe 2026 UAP records release is the ongoing publication of declassified U.S. government documents on UFOs and unidentified anomalous phenomena.📄 Document · 7 min readNational Defense Authorization ActThe National Defense Authorization Act is the annual U.S. law that sets the budget, spending, and policies for the Department of Defense.🏢 Organization · 15 min readAAROThe All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) is a United States Department of Defense organization created on July 20, 2022, to investigate unidentified anomalous phenomena. Its scope covers objects in the air, at sea, in space, and moving between those do…🏢 Organization · 8 min readArlington InstituteThe Arlington Institute is a futures research organization founded in 1989 by John L. Petersen that studies sudden, surprising world events. During the 1990s and 2000s, it served as a meeting place for figures discussing fringe-science topics, consciousness r…🏢 Organization · 8 min readDepartment of EnergyThe United States Department of Energy (DOE) is a federal department responsible for national energy policy, nuclear power research, and the military's nuclear weapons program. Created in 1977, the department evolved from the Atomic Energy Commission establis…🏢 Organization · 7 min readNIDSThe National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS) was a privately financed research organization based in Las Vegas, Nevada, that operated from 1995 to 2004 to study UFOs and other anomalous phenomena. Founded by Robert Bigelow, the organization is best kno…🏛️ Program or study · 13 min readProject Blue BookProject Blue Book was the United States Air Force's official study of unidentified flying objects based at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio from March 1952 until December 1969. The project collected and analyzed sighting reports to determine if UFOs th…🏢 Organization · 7 min readSol FoundationThe Sol Foundation is a California-based nonprofit think tank founded in 2023 that studies unidentified anomalous phenomena and non-human intelligence from scientific, philosophical, political, and religious perspectives. It was launched by Garry Nolan, Peter…

Related topics & places

Ideas, terms and places that come up in the story:

📖 Term · 13 min readUnidentified anomalous phenomenaUnidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) is the U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects or events in the air, space, or underwater.📖 Term · 17 min readUnidentified flying objectAn unidentified flying object, or UFO, is an unexplained phenomenon or object seen in the sky, with the modern craze originating in the United States in June 1947. While popular culture often equates UFOs with alien spacecraft, most investigations reveal them…📖 Term · 7 min readNon-human intelligenceNon-human intelligence (NHI) is a term used to describe non-human beings or systems, which has become prominent in recent discussions and whistleblower claims regarding unidentified anomalous phenomena. Although various individuals and legislative proposals h…🧭 Topic overview · 30 min readSecrecy & cover-up (topic)This overview page covers official secrecy, classification, and cover-up claims regarding unidentified anomalous phenomena from 1947 to 2023. It outlines historical classified studies, released government records, and modern claims of hidden reverse-engineeri…🧭 Topic overview · 12 min readCongress & law (topic)This topic overview covers congressional hearings, laws, and inquiries regarding unidentified anomalous phenomena from 1950 to 2022. During the Cold War, Congress primarily received closed briefings from the Air Force, but since 2017 it has driven official po…📖 Term · 7 min readSpecial access programA special access program (SAP) is a security arrangement used by the United States federal government to provide heightened safeguards and access limits for highly classified information. These programs span various categories within the Department of Defense…📖 Term · 7 min readDisclosureDisclosure refers to official government admissions or the release of secret records regarding UFOs and alleged alien visits, which campaigners argue have been hidden for decades. Between 1990 and 2022, various efforts took place, including Steven Greer's 200…📖 Term · 5 min readTransmediumTransmedium describes objects that reportedly move between different environments like space, air, and water without difficulty. United States law includes transmedium devices as a category of unidentified anomalous phenomena, though Pentagon officials stated…

🏛️ Official records

• Law creates the UAP Records Collection (FY2024 NDAA)U.S. Congress · Signed December 22, 2023The National Defense Authorization Act for 2024 included a slimmed-down version of the UAP Disclosure Act, creating a UAP records collection at the National Archives.
• UAP Disclosure Act proposal (2023)U.S. Senate (Schumer–Rounds amendment) · July 2023A bipartisan amendment from Senators Chuck Schumer and Mike Rounds to the 2024 defense bill, modelled on the JFK Records Act, to collect and release government UAP records.

🛸 UFO sightings about UAP Disclosure Act

Sightings that mention UAP Disclosure Act

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More in the encyclopedia

Other articles that link to or mention UAP Disclosure Act:

• Mike GallagherMike Gallagher is an American Republican politician, former Marine Corps intelligence officer, and former U.S. Representative for Wisconsin's 8th congressional district.
• Tim GallaudetTimothy Cole Gallaudet is an American oceanographer, retired U.S. Navy rear admiral, and former acting administrator of NOAA.
• Kirsten GillibrandKirsten Gillibrand is an American lawyer and Democratic politician who has served as a U.S. senator from New York since 2009.
• Eric BurlisonEric Burlison is an American Republican politician from Missouri who has served in the US House of Representatives since January 2023. He has focused heavily on government oversight regarding unident…
• Christopher SharpChristopher Sharp is a journalist who writes about unidentified anomalous phenomena and policy for Liberation Times, relying heavily on unnamed sources in Congress, the Defense Department, and the in…

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