Announcing UFO hearing, House lawmaker says, 'We're done with the cover-ups'

July 17 (UPI) -- The House Oversight Committee will hold a hearing next week on "unidentified anomalous phenomena," or UAPs, more commonly known as UFOs, Rep. Tim Burchett confirmed Monday.

"We're done with the cover-ups," the Tennessee lawmaker declared in a Twitter post announcing the hearing, which has been scheduled for July 26.

The announcement comes after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., last week submitted an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would mandate government records related to UAPs "carry the presumption of disclosure."

With Americans' ever-increasing interest in mysterious and unexplained flying objects, Schumer said, "It's long past time they get some answers."

"The American public has a right to learn about technologies of unknown origins, non-human intelligence, and unexplainable phenomena," he said in a statement. "We are not only working to declassify what the government has previously learned about these phenomena but to create a pipeline for future research to be made public."

A declassified intelligence report published earlier this year said the United States has received more than 350 new reports of UAPs since March 2021.

Of those newly reported UAPs, the Pentagon said 163 were characterized as "balloon or balloon-like entities," while another 26 were characterized as drones while six others were attributed to "birds, weather events or airborne debris like plastic bags."

Still, nearly half of the sightings have yet to be identified and were described as having "demonstrated unusual flight characteristics or performance capabilities, and require further analysis."

"That's what it is about -- aliens," Burchett told Politico last week as word of his intent to convene a hearing leaked out. "I think people deserve to know."