Do UFOs Exist? Congress Will Push Defense Dept. to Tell All

published 21 August 2023

Congress has recently begun to dig into the possibility that the Department of Defense has knowledge of UFOs. To try to help you understand what is going on and what might happen in the future, our highly-experienced Kiplinger Letter team will keep you abreast of the latest developments and forecasts (Get a free issue of The Kiplinger Letter or subscribe). You'll get all the latest news first by subscribing, but we will publish many (but not all) of the forecasts a few days afterward online. Here’s the latest...

Congressional obsession with unidentified flying objects is only just beginning. Lawmakers are prepared to build on recent hearings related to UFOs, or UAPs (unidentified anomalous phenomena), the official Pentagon terminology. The latest hearing included testimony from a former Air Force intelligence officer that the government has a UAP crash-retrieval and reverse-engineering program.

Besides additional hearings, they may exercise their subpoena powers in the hopes of forcing Department of Defense officials to cough up desired answers. Congress may also force the transfer of UAP records to a review panel with the power to declassify them. An amendment in the Senate version of the annual Defense Authorization Act is currently under consideration.

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The Pentagon denies retrieval of UAP and has a different explanation: These mysterious sightings may be of next-generation military aircraft developed by one of America’s foreign adversaries, most likely China or Russia. Look for defense officials to stonewall Congress as much as possible.

This forecast first appeared in The Kiplinger Letter, which has been running since 1923 and is a collection of concise weekly forecasts on business and economic trends, as well as what to expect from Washington, to help you understand what’s coming up to make the most of your investments and your money. Subscribe to The Kiplinger Letter.

Sean Lengell covers Congress and government policy for The Kiplinger Letter. Before joining Kiplinger in January 2017 he served as a congressional reporter for eight years with the Washington Examiner and the Washington Times. He previously covered local news for the Tampa (Fla.) Tribune. A native of northern Illinois who spent much of his youth in St. Petersburg, Fla., he holds a bachelor's degree in English from Marquette University.