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The federal government’s UFO task force, AARO, has come under intense scrutiny and criticism. Even its most recent UAP debunking report has been challenged by Rep. Matt Gaetz. Now it looks like the government is demanding additional oversight of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office.

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The Senate Intelligence Committee Will Require a GAO Review of AARO

On May 22, 2024, Sen. Mark R. Warner revealed that the Senate Intelligence Committee had passed an FY25 Intelligence Authorization Act. This act includes increased oversight of AARO, among the many other things it authorizes. The act is expected to be included in the Senate’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2025, and will become law if it’s included in the version of the NDAA that the House and Senate ultimately agree upon jointly. 

The press release notes that the Act authorizes funding for the Intelligence Committee to focus on key areas. One of those provisions “Requires a Government Accountability Office (GAO) review of the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office regarding unidentified anomalous phenomena reporting and Federal agency coordination.”

There are a few additional points that might tangentially help UAP investigations:

• “Reforms management of controlled access programs to improve Congressional oversight.” (There are concerns that many access programs are used to hide information from Congress about UAP work.) 
• “Maintains strong congressional oversight of and enhances protections for IC whistleblowers.” (UAP whistleblowers have come to the intelligence community but they fear for their safety, Sen. Marco Rubio has previously stated.) 
• “Requires the IC to establish an IC-wide policy authorizing a program for contractor-based sensitive compartmented information facilities, to improve public-private cooperation on technology innovation.” (There is concern that technological innovation involving reverse-engineered UAPs is hidden within contractor sensitive programs.) 

GAO Investigators Previously Got the Air Force to Release More Documents About Roswell

There’s an interesting history of GAO oversight potentially helping with UFO investigations. Back in 1995, The Washington Post reported on Roswell being looked into by investigators from the General Accounting Office (the original name for today’s Government Accountability Office) because they were skeptical about the Air Force’s official story. 

The article notes, in part: “Once the GAO launched its inquiry, Air Force officials suddenly found documents — not in the National Archives, but in their files. They issued a short report last September claiming the debris was part of Project Mogul, an experiment aimed at detecting future Soviet nuclear blasts by monitoring sound waves in the high atmosphere using airborne balloons and sensors. At the time of the Roswell Incident, however, the Soviets were still two years away from building their first nuclear bomb.”

A GAO investigator said they didn’t believe UFOs were involved with Roswell, but “we do believe that something did happen at Roswell. Something big. We don’t know if it was a plane that crashed with a nuclear device on it . . . or if it was some other experimental situation. But everything we’ve seen so far points to an attempt on the part of the Air Force to lead anybody that looks at this down another track.”

The UAP Disclosure Act Might Return for the 2025 NDAA

Meanwhile, as oversight of AARO intensifies, there’s a chance that we might see another attempt to bring back the Schumer-Rounds UAP Disclosure Act. The original version was changed quite a bit before the one we currently have in the 2024 NDAA. 

Sen. Mike Rounds, whose name is on the UAPDA, told AskaPol that he met with people from AARO about a month ago. 

“I actually think that they’re — from what I can see — I think, they’re getting invited into areas where they’re getting access to more and more information, which is good,” he said.

Then, discussing the high degree of compartmentalization within the Department of Defense, he added: “I don’t know if we’ve solved the problem of the silos that you find within DOD [the Department of Defense] where everything is so secretive at the special access level — between the IC community and the DOD community… I think they’re probably going to be able to shed some light without threatening national security with some of the information.”

And he clarified that no, he’s not confident that Congress knows about every Special Access Program at this time. 

Rounds also told AskaPol that “there’s some work being done” on a new UAP amendment in the next NDAA similar to the Schumer-Rounds UAPDA, but “I can’t talk much more than that about it.”  In a separate discussion, Rep. Matt Gaetz told AskaPol that he would back provisions that were previously taken out of the UAPDA. 

“I’d like to see the provisions that didn’t survive the conference last time survive conference this time,” Gaetz commented.

However, he didn’t know if it would actually happen or if the conversation has changed at all compared to last year. AskaPol also spoke with Ro Khanna, who said that so far, UAPs hadn’t come up at all in House discussions about the NDAA.

Subscribe to our “IRL Apocalypse” email list to stay updated on UFO news here. We’ll be launching a new UFO-only website, and you’ll be notified if you’re on this list.

Stephanie

Stephanie Dwilson started Post Apocalyptic Media with her husband Derek. She's a licensed attorney and has a master's in science and technology journalism. You can reach her at [email protected].

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