Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (hearing transcript, Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation, 17 May 2022)

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to actually put in place and promulgate across our government.
Mr. LaHood. Thank you. I yield back.
Chairman Carson. The gentleman yields back.
Mr. Welch.
Mr. Welch. Thank you.
I am going to follow on the line of questions from Mr. LaHood.
Gentlemen, what seems incredibly difficult for you is that there is two almost
competing but different narratives. One is it is -- no one knows whether there is
extraterrestrial life. It is a big universe. And it would be pretty presumptuous to have
a hard and fast conclusion. And, if there is, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that
there is some exploration coming here, and that underlies a lot of the reports you get. I
think Mr. LaHood was asking about that. People think there must be extraterritorial life,
and it is not at all beyond the pale that there would be a visit here.
On the other hand, as the DOD, you have the responsibility to make sure that our
national security is protected and that if there are surveillance drones or active drones, it
can disable our systems that has to be analyzed and has to be stopped. So how do you
divide these -- how do you separate the responsibilities where you get all of these reports
from folks who may be in good faith, maybe not, believe that you should be investigating
every possible report of an extraterrestrial incident? I will start with you, Mr. Moultrie.
Mr. Moultrie. Sure. Indeed, Congressman, and thank you for the question. It
is important that we, as a part of this effort, really build out the relationship that we have
with others, including NASA, and for the reasons that you just pointed out. So there are
elements in our government that are engaged in looking for life in other places, and they
have been doing that for decades. They have been searching for extraterrestrial life.
There are astrobiologists who have been doing this too. We are a part of that same