‘More of the Same’: Closed-Door Congressional Briefing on UAP Frustrates Representatives

A closed-door meeting with the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community (ICIG) was held by the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on January 12 regarding the issue of covert UAP reverse-engineering programs. The mood of the participating members was mixed as they emerged from the briefing, with some stating that the information provided will help further the investigation into whistleblower claims of these secret programs, while others were frustrated with the evasive answers they were given, described by one Representative as “more of the same.”

Because of the classified nature of the briefing, the Committee members that attended were unable to disclose what was discussed; however, we do know that the meeting was held in regards to claims that elements within the U.S. government have been illegally hiding recovered UAP and the secret programs aimed at exploiting their advanced technologies from Congress for decades. After learning of these back-engineering efforts from dozens of individuals that claimed to be directly involved with the programs, UAP whistleblower David Grusch took the evidence to the ICIG, who previously described the allegations as “urgent and credible.”

Voicing his frustration with the outcome of the 90-minute meeting with ICIG Thomas Monheim, Tennessee representative Tim Burchett stated that what was discussed was just “more of the same” and “verified what I thought.”

“My concern is that tens of millions—if not billions—of dollars that we’ve invested in the research of this issue since 1947—that we know of,” Burchett said in a post-hearing interview with NewsNation. “And yet the federal government keeps telling Congress they don’t exist. And yet obviously they’re investigating something.”

“It’s very compartmentalized; it’s like looking down the barrel of a .22 rifle,” Burchett remarked. “All they know is just right in that little circle.”

“Now it’s just whack-a-mole—you go to the next [briefing], until we get some answers.”

Regarding that next briefing, Burchett says that he’s building a list of witness, but he’s keeping that list secret: he says that for the landmark Congressional hearing on UAP held in July 2023 they originally had “over a dozen” witnesses available, but they were “literally told not to come” by “NASA, a quasi-branch of NASA” and “other groups;” in the end, only U.S. Navy aviators David Fravor and Ryan Graves and former intelligence official David Grusch provided testimony at the hearing.

Burchett pointed out that, despite having lost more than three-quarters of their witness, “we ended up with three excellent witnesses that put their love of this country over the love of themselves.”

Other members saw the briefing as more of a glass-half-full situation: Robert Garcia (D-CA) said that he “would have loved to receive much more information,” but that he did learn “interesting additional information to continue the investigation and ask more questions.” Garcia, along with fellow representative Glenn Grothman (R-WI), introduced the “Safe Airspace for Americans Act” on January 11, legislation aimed at providing civilian pilots and airline employees a safe network for reporting UAP encounters.

Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) was even more optimistic: “This is the first real briefing that we’ve had that we’ve now made, I would say, progress on some of the claims Mr. Grusch has made,” he said of the meeting. Although the IG’s ultimate decision regarding Grusch’s claims remain classified, Moskowitz added that “this is the first time we kind of got a ruling on what the IG thinks of those claims.”

“There’s a lot of new questions and a lot of new areas to ask and poke in based on what we got in this meeting,” Moskowitz added.

Regardless of what progress—or possibly a lack thereof—was made during the proceedings, Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) said that he was “more concerned” after attending the briefing than he was beforehand, and indicated that he and his fellow Representatives appear to be getting the runaround, facing pointless roadblocks composed of red tape rather than the truth.

“Mr. Grusch has made allegations that we’re still trying to figure out the veracity of, and we haven’t gotten the answers that we need,” he stated. “Unfortunately, I don’t think that we’re looking at the substance of his claims, and instead we’re dancing around the procedural nature of his claims.”