“The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence passed the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 (IAA) today on a bipartisan 16-0 vote,” Senator Mark Warner’s July 28, 2021, press release stated. “The bill authorizes funding, provides legal authorities, and enhances congressional oversight for the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC).” However, the last line of his release, which is one of the background bullet point objectives for the bill, will likely be the most exciting for the general public:
“Supporting the IC’s efforts to assess unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), following up on the work of the UAP Task Force.”
When reading the bill that has just passed the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which does have a long road to being passed by the House, Senate, then signed into law by President Joe Biden; Section 345 has extensive detail about UAPs, the UAP Task Force, and the data they will receive.
SEC. 345. SUPPORT FOR AND OVERSIGHT OF UNIDENTIFIED AERIAL PHENOMENA
TASK FORCE.
(a) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) Appropriate committees of congress.--The term
``appropriate committees of Congress'' includes:
(A) The congressional intelligence committees.
(B) The Committee on Armed Services of the Senate.
(C) The Committee on Armed Services of the House of
Representatives.
(2) Unidentified aerial phenomena task force.--The term
``Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force'' means the task
force established by the Department of Defense on August 4,
2020, to be led by the Department of the Navy, under the Office
of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and
Security.
(b) Availability of Data on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.--The
Director of National Intelligence and the Secretary of Defense shall
each, in coordination with each other, require each element of the
intelligence community and the Department of Defense with data relating
to unidentified aerial phenomena to make such data available
immediately to the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force and to the
National Air and Space Intelligence Center.
(c) Quarterly Reports to Congress.--
(1) In general.--Not later than 90 days after the date of
the enactment of this Act and not less frequently than
quarterly thereafter, the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task
Force, or such other entity as the Deputy Secretary of Defense
may designate to be responsible for matters relating to
unidentified aerial phenomena, shall submit to the appropriate
committees of Congress quarterly reports on the findings of the
Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, or such other
designated entity as the case may be.
(2) Contents.--Each report submitted under paragraph (1)
shall include, at a minimum, the following:
(A) All reported unidentified aerial phenomena-
related events that occurred during the previous 90
days.
(B) All reported unidentified aerial phenomena-
related events that occurred during a time period other
than the previous 90 days but were not included in an
earlier report.
(3) Form.--Each report submitted under paragraph (1) shall
be submitted in classified form.
Arguably, one of the most interesting aspects to the above language, is the inclusion of the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC). Appearing right along side the UAP Task Force, they are both set to receive UAP data from the Intelligence Community and the Department of Defense (DoD).
In addition, they tried to pass on the decades-old explanation that although the USAF investigated UFOs with Project Blue Book, they cancelled it and haven’t done so since.
