If you've noticed an increase in UFO activity over the past year, you're "not alone." UFO sightings are on the rise, while the U.S. government's insistence on maintaining secrecy about them is waning.
Last week, the Senate Intelligence Committee voted in favor of requiring the Defense Department and U.S. intelligence agencies to compile a detailed public analysis of all data collected on "unidentified aerial phenomenon," including all interactions and incidents recorded by U.S. Naval pilots.
The U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, chaired by Sen. Marco Rubio has directed the executive branch to centralize all relevant information as part of a provision contained in the annual intelligence authorization bill, that is awaiting adoption by the full Senate. Once adopted, the analysis must be completed within 180 days director of national intelligence and the secretary of defense.
"The Committee remains concerned that there is no unified, comprehensive process within the federal government for collecting and analyzing intelligence on unidentified aerial phenomena, despite the potential threat," the committee states in its report on the bill, which sets policy for the intelligence community.
"The Committee understands that the relevant intelligence may be sensitive; nevertheless, the Committee finds that the information sharing and coordination across the Intelligence Community has been inconsistent, and this issue has lacked attention from senior leaders," it adds.
The Senate's approval comes just two months after former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid admitted that congress used a "Black Budget" for studying UFOs. In an interview with Motherboard's CYBER podcast, Reid confirmed that he spearheaded two Pentagon programs “designed to look for and study UFOs, unidentified aerial phenomena, and advanced propulsion technologies.” The Advanced Aerospace Threat and Identification Program and the Advanced Aerospace Weapons Systems Applications Programs were run by Bigelow Advanced Aerospace Studies from 2007 - 2012 with a $22 million budget.
Reid, admits that he believes in aliens and has told politicians that they shouldn't be afraid. He implores the Pentagon to continue investigating UFOs and says that there should be "no boundaries on what we look for."
While it remains unclear whether the legislation will be approved by the full Senate and the Trump administration, there is already significant momentum by government agencies to confirm UFO activity - some would say that "the cat's out of the bag" already.
- June 2019 - a group of U.S. senators were given a classified briefing by the Pentagon on a series of U.S. Naval encounters with unidentified aircraft.
- September of 2019 - U.S. Navy publicly confirms the existence of "Unidentified" flying objects.
- February 2020 - NASA captures footage of UFO on Space Station live feed (shown below).
- April 2020 - Pentagon officially releases three UFO videos taken between 2004 - 2015 showing "unidentified aerial phenomena" (shown below).
- April 2020 - NASA cuts away from International Space Station live feed when a UFO is spotted.
- May 2020 - U.S. Navy releases eight new UFO incident reports submitted by pilots.