UFO panel, recovery rules cut from defense funding bill

WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — Lawmakers have been on a quest to learn more information about an alleged secret UFO crash retrieval program, but the effort seems to have hit major turbulence.

Key portions of an unprecedented measure to disclose classified government records relating to unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs, have been stripped from the annual defense spending bill unveiled Wednesday night.

The UAP measure was sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota, and it would disclose records on “technologies of unknown origin and non-human intelligence.”

However, the measure doesn’t go nearly as far as Schumer intended. He blamed House Republicans for fighting back against his efforts for more transparency.

“The measure I championed with Senator Rounds would create a board, just like we did with the JFK assassination records, to work through the declassification of many government records on UAPs. This model’s been a terrific success for decades,” Schumer said. “It should be used again with UAPs, but once again, House Republicans are ready to kill this bipartisan provision.”

Two key pieces of his measure were ultimately stripped out, per NewsNation sources, after influence from the House Intelligence Committee.

One provision would have created a 10-person panel — each person chosen by the president — to sort through which records would immediately be disclosed. The second would’ve given the government full possession of all recovered “non-human technology” currently kept by private entities like defense contractors. 

“The risk for confusion and misinformation is high if the government isn’t willing to be transparent,” Schumer said.

Sources had been telling NewsNation for weeks these pieces of the bill were at risk of being cut.

A bipartisan group of House members have raised alarm bells, saying even their efforts as sitting lawmakers to get access to UAP information were being stonewalled.

“If none of this exists, that this is all false, why at every turn are there people trying to stop the transparency and the disclosure,” said Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla.

The pushback to disclosure, according to the bill itself, is national security.

It now includes a whole list of exemptions for disclosing UAP records, including if the records threaten national defense, compromise national intelligence, threaten sources and methods of intel gathering or compromise any federal agent.

Those lists of exemptions, sources say, are incredibly broad and may provide cover to block disclosure of meaningful revelations.

However, even before the bill was written, there have been major steps this year on disclosure from the Pentagon and from whistleblowers.