Aftermath of congressional UFOs hearing can benefit Americans

On July 26, the US House of Representatives was so crammed that the staff had to open a second room for the overflow of visitors. They were there to witness an event that seemed like something out of a movie.

That day the US Congress held a public hearing about UFOs (or UAPs -unidentified aerial phenomena- as officials formally call them) with potential consequences for the Pentagon.

The hearing had no extraordinary revelations other than what had already been recognized by the US government: the programs that look into UAPs do exist.

Some lawmakers were also very skeptical of the whiteness declarations about UFOs and non-human remainings, and the direction of the hearing, including Democrats and Republicans. Some even called his claims "far-fetched."

Despite the skepticism of a part of the House, both parties agreed that the discussion must conclude in a call for more government transparency, The New York Times reported.

According to The Guardian, Republican Glenn Grothman, chair of the House subcommittee on national security, said several lawmakers looked forward to getting some answers and assumed they would create legislation.

Some new legislation had already come from the other aisle. In mid-July, Democrat senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, pushed for a commission with broad authority to declassify government documents about UFOs.

According to The New York Times, Schumer will introduce the measure as an annual defense policy bill amendment. The initiative was met with bipartisan support in the chamber.

The nine-person review board would be appointed by the President and approved by the Senate. The goal is to find people capable of discerning information that needs to be disclosed from a delicate one. 

Bi-partisan representatives are also pushing for a new hearing on classified material through a subpoena, to overpass the "roadblocks" that the Pentagon is putting.

According to The New York Times, lawmakers are pushing for more transparency on recent work, especially by the Pentagon, which is still unreleased. Interest spiked after a February incident with a Chinese spy balloon.

However, according to The Hill, the group is having difficulty getting House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to designate a select committee for the hearing.

On the other aisle of Congress, representatives that were not that interested in the UFO issue took the chance to push for more general transparency in the Pentagon.

Among them is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is taking a chance to push for CIA and Pentagon transparency on the Chilean coup of 1973.

The coup will turn 50 years on September, 2023, which is why Ocasio-Cortez and a few democrat representatives took a tour to the country and asked for the declassification.

In any case, a call for transparency is becoming more common in Congress, and the UFO hearing can only contribute to that.

Transparency would help lawmakers push back on conspiracy theories surrounding UFOs and the idea that the government may be withholding relevant information from the public.