Documents / Hearing transcript

Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency (hearing transcript)

U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability · 2023-07-26 · 54 pages · text from the file's own layer

This is the printed transcript of a July 26, 2023 hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability's Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, chaired by Rep. Glenn Grothman. Ryan Graves, David Grusch and retired Navy Commander David Fravor testified on unidentified anomalous phenomena. Members pressed for transparency, whistleblower protection and better pilot reporting. Graves described a near mid-air collision with a dark cube inside a clear sphere off the Eastern Seaboard.

  • p. 8 …We have run into roadblocks from Members, from the intelligence community, the Pentagon. I proposed legislation…
  • p. 9 …Pentagon bureaucrats who have always been sent to stonewall our investigations. Just so that the press…
  • p. 18 …Unbeknownst to all, he was part of the ATIP program in the Pentagon led by Lue…
  • p. 25 …and have since come forward to warn the Pentagon that these encounters may be putting pilots…
  • p. 35 …the Pentagon every year and I have been here 5 years and they fail the daggum…
29
tions ultimately led NASA to assemble the independent study team
that I mentioned earlier.
Also, in 2021 Harvard University stood up the Galileo Project to
research and examine the origins of UAP. So, it seems like both,
you know, from NASA and in the higher education community be-
cause of the work that you all have done and people standing up,
you know, I think we are seeing some of that stigma slowly going
away.
Mr. Fravor, do you believe that military pilots feeling empowered
to share their UAP experiences has directly impacted the scientific
community’s research goals on this topic?
Commander FRAVOR. I would say yes. I would say that, you
know, starting in 2017 when it actually came out, it took that stig-
ma away. I mean, I have talked to multiple Senators who said
prior to that if you would have mentioned UAP, you would have
been laughed off the Hill and now we are sitting here today for a
public testimony on what is actually going on. You know, I am hop-
ing that this curve will be more of an exponential and we will get
more and more transparent to the level that we can.
Mr. FROST. I mean, it is important. I could not imagine—you
know, I am not a pilot, but I used to fly gliders in Civil Air Patrol.
Commander FRAVOR. A pilot?
Mr. FROST. And so, either way, I mean, I could not imagine, you
know, being in the glider and seeing something and then not feel-
ing like I had the agency to talk about it.
Mr. Graves, can you discuss the importance of seeking scientists
to sit on your advisory board?
Mr. GRAVES. Absolutely. I think, ultimately, this is going to be
a scientific problem, and not only that, it is also an engineering
problem. I have been working with the American Institute of Aero-
nautics and Astronautics to help them stand up a UAP integration
committee to help integrate their engineering prowess into this
problem.
And so, yes, very much I think this is an engineering and sci-
entific problem as much as a national security problem.
Mr. FROST. And how might Congress help to facilitate partner-
ships between the scientific community and the UAP focus groups
within government?
Mr. GRAVES. Well, I think one of the things they can do is to
have these types of hearings to communicate to the public that this
is a topic of interest.
I think that there is a pseudo market, if you will, of interested
capabilities and talent that want to approach this topic and we are
seeing that start to grow now. So, I think continued conversation
and reduction of stigma is going to allow that to flourish and allow
answers to help generate themselves.
Mr. FROST. A hundred percent. Well, thank you all for being
here. Thank you for your work. I think it is important that we keep
our top scientific minds focused on this issue and look for ways to
increase collaboration. Thank you so much. I yield back.
Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Comer?
Mr. COMER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me say I want to
thank you for having this hearing and I want to thank Mr.

Cases discussed

About this file

Hearing transcript, from the hearings collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 54 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.