Documents / Hearing transcript
This is the transcript of an April 19, 2023 hearing of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, chaired by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. AARO Director Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick testified on the office's mission, budget, data collection and review of the historical record. He said AARO had found no credible evidence of extraterrestrial activity or off-world technology. He also presented trend data and two declassified MQ-9 videos, and one of them was resolved as a commuter aircraft.
16 Dr. KIRKPATRICK. That is right. Senator ROSEN. Having the good data collection, predictive ana- lytics, you can—— Dr. KIRKPATRICK. Correct. Inform—— Senator ROSEN.—possibly make some assumptions on possibili- ties. Dr. KIRKPATRICK. That is right, and we will inform recommenda- tions back to the Department on here is what could work, here is what we have seen work, here is what does not work. Senator ROSEN. Thank you so much. Thank you, Madam Chair. Appreciate it. Senator GILLIBRAND. Thank you very much. I just want to just talk a little bit about your logistics, who you report to, how that is going, whether you need different reporting lines. By congressional legislation, your office is administratively lo- cated with the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intel- ligence Security (OUSD(I&S)), but you are not substantively subor- dinate to the Under Secretary. Rather, you are a direct report to the Deputy Secretary. Are you taking direction directly from the Deputy Secretary? Are you able to meet and brief the Deputy Secretary? Is the office of OUSD(I&S) working with you to have the right framework? Dr. KIRKPATRICK. OUSD(I&S) and the—I currently report to OUSD(I&S) until they come up with the plan for how they are going to implement legislation. DOD and DNI are working through that now. I would have to refer you back to OUSD(I&S) on what their plan is. Senator GILLIBRAND. Do I need to update your reporting struc- ture in the next defense bill or is this something that you think will work its way out or does it need further clarity? Dr. KIRKPATRICK. I think they are planning on coming back to you with an answer on what that plan is, and I think at t]hat time that will inform what you want to do. Senator GILLIBRAND. Okay. Thank you. As you know, Dr. Kirkpatrick, Congress has mandated that your office establish a discoverable and accessible electronic method for potential witnesses of UAP incidents and potential participants in Government UAP-related activities to contact your office and tell their stories. Congress also set up a process whereby people are subject to non- disclosure agreements (NDAs) preventing them from disclosing what they may have witnessed or participated in could tell you what they know without risk of retribution or violation of their NDAs. Have you submitted a public-facing website product for approval to your superiors, and how long has it been under review? Dr. KIRKPATRICK. I have. We submitted the first version of that before Christmas. Senator GILLIBRAND. Do you have an estimate from them when they will respond and when you will have feedback on that? Dr. KIRKPATRICK. No, I do not. Senator GILLIBRAND. Okay. We will author a letter asking for that timely response to your superiors.
Hearing transcript, from the govinfo collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 26 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.