National Defense Authorization Act
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 📄 Document
Contents 6

| Type | Document |
|---|---|
| Also known as | NDAA |
| On the Timeline | 1 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
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
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

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
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

- FY2023 NDAA UAP provisions (6 December 2022) — The UAP sections of the 2023 defense bill are published with late changes.
References
- "Some UFO records must be released, US Congress says", Yahoo News (Dec 2023) · news.yahoo.com · archived copy
- "Pentagon changes UAP terminology as it looks to investigate unexplainable sightings across all domains", DefenseScoop (19 Dec 2022) · defensescoop.com · archived copy
- "Unclassified Summary: Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena", Department of Defense (Jan 2024) · media.defense.gov · archived copy
- UAP Disclosure Act — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "Congress wants to know more about the military's UAP intercepts around North America", DefenseScoop (10 Dec 2025) · defensescoop.com · archived copy
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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