The Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) Disclosure Act is a legislative proposal concerning US government records and material related to unidentified anomalous phenomena. In the summer of 2023, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, together with Senators Mike Rounds, Marco Rubio, and Kirsten Gillibrand, sponsored the Act in the United States Senate.1
As proposed, the Act would grant the government eminent domain over biological evidence of nonhuman intelligence (NHI) and any recovered technology of nonhuman origin held by government bodies or defence contractors.2 It also proposed a review board reporting directly to the president, tasked with producing a roadmap for controlled disclosure to the American people.3 The Act further provides for the withdrawal of funding from any UAP-related activity not approved by the appropriate congressional committees of the United States Congress.4 Luis Elizondo said the Act makes it illegal for the Legacy Program or anyone else to spend taxpayer money on UAP-related matters without Congress’s approval.5 It also directs the National Archives to collect government documents concerning Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), technologies of unknown origin, and nonhuman intelligence (NHI)6, and requires any UAP-related records not already disclosed to be made public within twenty-five years of their creation, unless the president determines they must remain classified for national security reasons.7
Elizondo said the Act’s language is a direct result of whistleblowers briefing members of Congress and their staff, at the classified level and under oath, about NHI and the Legacy Program’s efforts to capture, collect, and reverse-engineer nonhuman-origin vehicles and, in some cases, nonhuman specimens.8 He also said the Act shows Congress is aware that the Legacy Program possesses nonhuman bodies and advanced technology not made on Earth or by human beings.9
Throughout the autumn of 2023, Senate leadership asked Luis Elizondo to help clarify facts as they sharpened the Act’s language.10 Congressman Mike Turner opposed the Act and stopped much of what it sought to make law.11 Schumer and Rounds fought for the Act’s passage, with some historic wins.12 The proposal for a presidential review board was removed before the Act passed.13 Schumer said it was an outrage that the House had not worked with the Senate to adopt the review board proposal, meaning declassification of UAP records would largely fall to the same entities that had blocked and obfuscated their disclosure for decades.14 In late December 2023, President Joe Biden signed the Act into law.15
Coverage from September and October 2024 described continued activity around the Act. Schumer continued to push for the Act, which would require declassification of government-held UAP-related documents, in terms compared to the JFK files.16 The Act was pushed back again in 2024, this time by Senator Mitch McConnell.17 If passed, the Act would allow investigation and disclosure of past UAP events to the public, similar to the release of the JFK assassination records.18