For the third time in three years, Congress is trying to force the federal government to disclose what it knows about unidentified anomalous phenomena. The UAP Disclosure Act of 2025, introduced by Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO) as an amendment to the FY2026 National Defense Authorization Act, would establish an independent review board modeled on the JFK Assassination Records Review Board and require the government to make UAP records public within 25 years of creation. Previous attempts to pass similar legislation have been stripped in conference committee or stalled in committee. Whether this version survives the legislative process depends on whether the political dynamics around UAP transparency have actually changed.
Rep. Eric Burlison discusses his legislation requiring UAP disclosure with Dr. Peter Skafish.
The UAP Disclosure Act of 2025: Burlison’s New Push to Declassify Government Records
Timeline
July 14, 2023 Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) introduce the original UAP Disclosure Act as an amendment to the FY2024 NDAA. The bill is modeled directly on the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992. It would create an independent review board, establish a presumption of disclosure for UAP records, and set a 25-year deadline for declassification. The bill receives bipartisan support in the Senate.
November 2023 The House and Senate enter conference committee negotiations on the FY2024 NDAA. House Republican leadership, reportedly at the urging of intelligence community lobbyists, opposes the UAP Disclosure Act’s independent review board and disclosure deadlines. The conference committee strips the bill’s core provisions, including the review board, the 25-year timeline, and the presidential certification requirement. The version that passes retains limited UAP reporting requirements and the establishment of AARO‘s mandate.
December 2023 The stripped FY2024 NDAA passes both chambers and is signed into law. UAP disclosure advocates express frustration. Sen. Rounds states publicly that he will continue to push for the review board in future legislation. The incident becomes a defining moment in the UAP legislative movement, demonstrating the intelligence community’s ability to kill transparency legislation in conference.
May 17, 2024 Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) introduces the UAP Transparency Act (H.R. 1187) in the House. The bill takes a blunter approach than the Disclosure Act: it would require the President to direct all federal departments and agencies to declassify and publicly post all UAP-related documents within 270 days of enactment. No review board, no 25-year timeline, no presidential certification. Every UAP record in federal custody would become public within nine months. The bill is referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform but does not advance.
September-December 2024 The FY2025 NDAA process begins. Multiple UAP-related amendments are proposed. The House Rules Committee, reviewing over 1,300 proposed amendments, strips UFO amendments from the FY2025 NDAA. UAP transparency advocates again fail to secure legislative progress.
July 2025 The Senate Armed Services Committee releases its draft of the FY2026 NDAA. The draft includes three provisions affecting AARO: Sec. 1555, requiring briefings on UAP intercepts by NORAD and U.S. Northern Command; Sec. 1556, requiring a consolidated security classification guidance matrix for UAP programs; and Sec. 1561, requiring consolidation of reporting requirements applicable to AARO. Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Christopher Mellon calls these provisions “low-hanging fruit” but welcomes them as a step toward greater oversight.
July 29, 2025 DefenseScoop reports that UAP disclosure advocates, including Mellon, are calling for expanded reforms in the FY2026 NDAA. Mellon raises concerns that NORAD has historically failed to inform AARO of UAP incidents, and that the Air Force appears to report no UAP even in areas where Navy ships and aircraft encounter them. He advocates for better domain awareness including the space domain.
August 29, 2025 Rep. Eric Burlison introduces the UAP Disclosure Act of 2025 as an amendment to the FY2026 NDAA. The amendment includes five key provisions: (1) prohibit the destruction or alteration of UAP records, (2) create a UAP Records Collection at the National Archives, (3) establish an independent UAP Records Review Board, (4) require public disclosure within 25 years unless the President certifies a national security reason for delay, and (5) provide ongoing congressional oversight. Burlison states: “For too long, Americans have been left in the dark about UAP. This amendment ensures these records are preserved, reviewed, and responsibly released to the public.”
What the Bill Would Do
The UAP Disclosure Act of 2025 is the most comprehensive UAP transparency legislation proposed to date. It addresses five specific areas of government secrecy around unidentified anomalous phenomena.
Record preservation. The bill would prohibit the destruction or alteration of any UAP records held by federal agencies. This is significant because multiple former government officials have alleged that UAP-related materials have been destroyed, moved to private contractors, or hidden in unacknowledged special access programs outside normal congressional oversight. The preservation requirement would make such destruction a federal offense.
National Archives collection. The bill would create a dedicated UAP Records Collection at the National Archives, similar to the JFK Assassination Records Collection established in 1992. All federal agencies would be required to identify and transfer UAP records to this collection. The collection would be publicly accessible, with appropriate security redactions applied only through the review board process.
Independent review board. The centerpiece of the bill is an independent UAP Records Review Board modeled on the JFK Assassination Records Review Board. The board would operate independently of the intelligence community and the Pentagon. It would have the authority to review all UAP records, determine what can be released, and order declassification. Board members would be appointed by the President with Senate confirmation, ensuring both executive and legislative branch involvement.
25-year disclosure deadline. All UAP records would be required to be disclosed within 25 years of creation. The President could postpone disclosure by certifying a clear national security reason for continued classification, but each postponement would be limited in duration and subject to congressional review. This is the same framework used for the JFK records, which has successfully declassified millions of documents over three decades.
Congressional oversight. The bill includes provisions for ongoing congressional oversight of the review board’s operations. The board would be required to report to Congress regularly on its progress, the number of records reviewed, and the number of postponements granted. This ensures that the declassification process remains accountable to elected officials.
The Legislative Pattern: Why This Time Is Different (and Why It Might Not Be)
The UAP Disclosure Act has now been introduced in three consecutive congressional sessions. Understanding why previous versions failed is essential to assessing whether the 2025 version has a better chance.
The 2023 version. The original UAP Disclosure Act, introduced by Schumer and Rounds, had strong bipartisan support in the Senate. It was stripped in conference committee, reportedly due to opposition from House Republican leadership and intelligence community lobbying. The conference process is opaque: the specific objections and the identity of those who demanded the stripping were never publicly disclosed. This pattern, where legislation passes one chamber with broad support and is killed in conference, is common for national security-related transparency bills.
The 2024 version. House amendments to the FY2025 NDAA that included UAP transparency provisions were stripped by the House Rules Committee before reaching the floor. The Rules Committee’s decision to block over 1,300 amendments, including UAP-related ones, reflected a broader strategy to fast-track the NDAA rather than a specific objection to UAP transparency.
What has changed in 2025. Several factors may improve the 2025 version’s chances. The Senate Armed Services Committee’s FY2026 NDAA draft already includes three UAP-related provisions, signaling that UAP oversight is gaining institutional acceptance. NORAD and U.S. Northern Command have been directed to brief AARO and Congress on UAP intercepts, suggesting that the military is taking the issue more seriously. Public opinion supports transparency: nearly half of Americans believe the government is hiding UAP evidence. And Christopher Mellon, a former senior defense official, is publicly advocating for expanded reforms, providing establishment credibility to the disclosure movement.
What has not changed. The intelligence community’s opposition to independent review boards has not changed. The same agencies that stripped the 2023 version still have the ability to lobby against the 2025 version. The conference committee process remains opaque. And the political dynamics that allowed House leadership to kill the 2023 version in conference have not fundamentally shifted. The bill’s survival depends on whether enough senators and representatives are willing to publicly support the review board concept and resist intelligence community pressure.
Opposing Perspectives
The disclosure case: Supporters argue that the government has classified UAP records for decades without adequate justification. The JFK Records Act model proves that independent review boards can declassify sensitive material without compromising national security. A 25-year timeline is reasonable: most Cold War-era intelligence records are declassified well within that window. Requiring presidential certification for delays ensures that classification decisions receive the highest level of scrutiny. The preservation requirement addresses credible allegations that UAP materials have been destroyed or hidden. Public opinion supports transparency, and the growing number of former officials willing to testify about UAP adds political momentum.
The national security case: Critics argue that UAP records often contain information about military sensor capabilities, surveillance methods, intelligence sources, and classified aircraft programs. Releasing these records could compromise national security in ways that are not obvious to the public. The 25-year timeline may be appropriate for some records but insufficient for others, particularly those related to active intelligence operations or advanced military technology. An independent board without intelligence community expertise could inadvertently release material that harms ongoing operations. AARO already has the authority to review and release UAP records, making an additional board potentially redundant and bureaucratic.
The practical question: The core debate is not about whether UAP records should be disclosed, but who should control the process. The Disclosure Act places control with an independent board. The Transparency Act (H.R. 1187) places it with a fixed 270-day deadline. The status quo places it with AARO and the intelligence community. Each approach has tradeoffs between speed, thoroughness, and security. Advocates like Christopher Mellon argue that the current system is failing: NORAD does not report UAP to AARO, the Air Force reports no UAP in areas where Navy encounters them, and critical sensor data is often lost by the time AARO learns of an incident. Whether an independent board would fix these systemic failures, or simply add another layer of bureaucracy, is the fundamental question.
The Broader Context
The UAP Disclosure Act does not exist in a vacuum. It is part of a broader pattern of UAP-related legislative activity that has accelerated since 2023.
AARO’s expanding role. The Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, established in 2022, has seen its responsibilities expand as it matures. The FY2026 NDAA draft includes provisions requiring NORAD to report UAP intercepts to AARO and Congress, consolidating UAP classification guidance, and streamlining reporting requirements. These provisions, while modest compared to the Disclosure Act, signal growing congressional interest in UAP oversight.
The NORAD gap. Christopher Mellon has publicly stated that NORAD has historically failed to inform AARO of UAP incidents. This means that the most sophisticated air surveillance system in the world may be encountering unidentified objects and not reporting them to the office Congress created to investigate such encounters. The FY2026 NDAA’s Section 1555 would require NORAD briefings on UAP intercepts, addressing this gap directly.
The Air Force silence. Multiple officials have noted that the Air Force appears to report no UAP even in areas where Navy ships and aircraft regularly encounter them. This disparity raises questions about whether the Air Force is failing to report, failing to detect, or choosing not to engage with the UAP reporting process. The Disclosure Act’s record preservation and collection requirements would apply to all federal agencies, including the Air Force, potentially forcing transparency where none currently exists.
The classification matrix. Section 1556 of the FY2026 NDAA draft would require a consolidated security classification guidance matrix for UAP programs. Currently, different agencies apply different classification standards to UAP-related information, making it difficult to compare data across agencies and impossible to know what is classified and why. A unified classification matrix would make the classification system more coherent and easier to challenge through the review board process.
Rep. Burlison breaks silence on his first classified site visit and the push for UAP disclosure.
Sources
Official
- Rep. Burlison – UAP Disclosure Act of 2025 Introduced as Amendment to NDAA (August 29, 2025)
- Congress.gov – H.R. 1187: UAP Transparency Act (119th Congress)
- Senate Democratic Leadership – Schumer, Rounds Introduce UAP Disclosure Legislation (July 14, 2023)
- Rep. Burchett – UAP Transparency Act Introduced (May 17, 2024)
Reporting
- DefenseScoop – UAP Disclosure Advocates Call for Expanded Reforms in FY2026 NDAA (July 29, 2025)
- The Hill – House Lawmakers Demand Transparency on UAP Amendment’s Inclusion in Defense Bill (December 4, 2023)
- MeriTalk – FY2025 NDAA Advances With Several Tech Provisions (2024)