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Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency (hearing transcript)

U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability · 2023-07-26 · 54 pages · text from the file's own layer

This is the printed transcript of a July 26, 2023 hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability's Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, chaired by Rep. Glenn Grothman. Ryan Graves, David Grusch and retired Navy Commander David Fravor testified on unidentified anomalous phenomena. Members pressed for transparency, whistleblower protection and better pilot reporting. Graves described a near mid-air collision with a dark cube inside a clear sphere off the Eastern Seaboard.

  • p. 3 …Ryan Graves, Executive Director, Americans for Safe Aerospace Oral Statement ........................................................................................................ 10 Mr. David Grusch, Former National…
  • p. 9 …to be here as well. To Mr. Graves, I am particularly grateful to you to spend…
  • p. 10 …UFOs by the Defense Intelligence Agency. Mr. Graves and Commander Fravor’s experiences with UAPs have…
  • p. 13 …Our first witness is Lieutenant Ryan Graves. He is the Ex- ecutive Director of Americans for…
  • p. 14 …STATEMENT OF RYAN GRAVES EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AMERICANS FOR SAFE AEROSPACE Mr. GRAVES. Thank you, Chairman Grothman…
  • p. 19 …I am going to start with Mr. Graves. Are your pilots, or pilots that you interact…
  • p. 20 …Mr. GROTHMAN. OK. Each of you? Mr. GRAVES. I would also like to add from a…
  • p. 21 …and pilots’ interaction with UAPs. Particularly, Mr. Graves, one of the, I think, concerns from Mem…
  • p. 22 …order to investigate. Mr. GARCIA. Mr. Graves? Mr. GRAVES. I will concur with everything Mr. Fravor…
  • p. 23 …technology we have today. Mr. Graves? Mr. Fravor? Mr. GRAVES. Yes. The objects that are being…
  • p. 25 …Mr. RASKIN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Graves, you reported UAP encounters during training flights, I…
  • p. 26 …what the convergence of descriptions is? Mr. GRAVES. Certainly. We were primarily seeing dark gray or…
  • p. 28 …for you before I move to Mr. Graves is you received prior approval from the Defense…
  • p. 29 …to safety for potential airline passengers? Mr. GRAVES. I have been made privy to conversations with…
  • p. 32 …we all eagerly await its results. Mr. Graves, how might NASA’s research influence the commer…
  • p. 33 …the agency to talk about it. Mr. Graves, can you discuss the importance of seeking scientists…
  • p. 36 …I wanted to pick up on. Mr. Graves, you mentioned specifically during the answer to one…
  • p. 37 …them. Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ. OK. Mr. Graves? Mr. GRAVES. I was an operator, so I was…
  • p. 38 …start with Mr. Graves and go on down the panel. Mr. GRAVES. Some of the initial…
  • p. 39 …American people? All of you, yes. Mr. GRAVES. I will say yes to that. Mr. GRUSCH…
  • p. 42 …In all of the phenomenon, perhaps, Mr. Graves, that you have ana- lyzed have we ever…
  • p. 43 …I want to thank each of you for being here to discuss a topic of grave…
  • p. 47 …essentially collecting reconnaissance in- formation? Mr. Graves? Mr. GRAVES. Yes. Mr. OGLES. Mr. Grusch? Mr. GRUSCH…
  • p. 48 …in UAP data collection and housing? Mr. GRAVES. I do not have an answer. Mr. GRUSCH…
  • p. 50 …right level. Mr. RASKIN. OK. And, Mr. Graves, you said that there are dozens of fellow…
  • p. 51 …Mr. GRAVES. Yes. Mr. RASKIN. And with no self-evident propulsion system? Mr. GRAVES. No wings…
  • p. 52 …the public to report these sightings? Mr. GRAVES. Right now I do not think there is…
32
Mr. GROTHMAN. Thank you.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez?
Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you
to our witnesses for coming here today. I do concur with the Rank-
ing Member as well as several other Members here on this Com-
mittee that this is a committee for whistleblowers and for the pro-
tection of whistleblowers as well. So, we understand what you are
putting on the table here and what you are putting on the line
here. We thank you for that.
Mr. Grusch, you sat on the unidentified anomalous phenomenon
task force created in the 2020 NDAA, correct?
Mr. GRUSCH. Yes.
Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ. There have been some things that have
been mentioned here during this hearing that I wanted to pick up
on.
Mr. Graves, you mentioned specifically during the answer to one
of your questions, you named Boeing contractors being engaged in
an incident regarding this red cube about a football field wide.
I was wondering if you could speak a little bit about the inter-
action—or Mr. Grusch, either of you—the interactions between de-
fense contractor companies and any UAP-related programs or ac-
tivities.
Mr. GRAVES. So, I will just say that the information about the
contractors themselves were provided by a witness and I have no
particular detail in that relationship.
Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ. Understood.
Mr. Grusch?
Mr. GRUSCH. The kind of general unclassed wave tops. Certainly,
the contractors, you know, or the metal benders, so to speak, the
ones actually doing specific performance on government contracts.
Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ. Are they required to issue any disclosure re-
garding UAP sightings or do they engage in any reporting around
this?
Mr. GRUSCH. In terms of the contractors? Not that I am aware
of.
Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ. They do not. OK. Now, when it comes to no-
tification that you had mentioned about IR&D programs, we have
seen defense contractors abuse their contracts before through this
Committee.
I have seen it personally, and I have also seen the notification
requirements to Congress abused. I am wondering, one of the loop-
holes that we see in the law is that there is—at least from my van-
tage point, is that depending on what we are seeing is that there
are no actual definitions or requirements for notification.
Are there—what methods of notification did you observe? Like,
when they say they notified Congress, how did they do that? Do
you have insight into that?
Mr. GRUSCH. For certain IR&D activities, I can only think of
ones conventional in nature. Sometimes they flow through certain,
I will just say SAP programs, that have cognizant authority over
the Air Force or something and those are congressionally reported
compartments.

Cases discussed

About this file

Hearing transcript, from the hearings collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 54 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.