Documents / Hearing transcript
This is the transcript of a joint hearing held November 13, 2024 by two subcommittees of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, chaired by Rep. Nancy Mace. The witnesses were Tim Gallaudet, Luis Elizondo, Michael Shellenberger and Michael Gold. They addressed government secrecy, AARO's transparency, a Pentagon document on the alleged Immaculate Constellation program, threats to pilot safety, and UAP activity near nuclear and military sites. Members also discussed UAP disclosure legislation.
“The Times”27 pages
3 I am disturbed that AARO itself lacks transparency. Even its budget is kept from the public. So, if there is no there ‘‘there’’, then why are we spending money on it, and by how much? Why the se- crecy if it is really no big deal and there is nothing there? Why hide it from the American people? Because I am not a mathematician, but I can tell you that does not add up. I expect some of our witnesses to share their views on that AARO report. We will also hear, from the witnesses today, allega- tions of UAP-related misinformation and disinformation by govern- ment officials of which they are personally aware and directly expe- rienced. And we will hear testimony today concerning recent revelations about a purportedly secret UAP program whose existence and find- ings may have been improperly withheld from Congress. But, be- fore we get to the witnesses, we are going to have a few more open- ing statements from our colleagues. And one thing I wanted to add at the end of my closing state- ment is there is a document that will be entered into the congres- sional record today. Mr. Tim Burchett from Tennessee has this doc- ument, and we just distributed it to every Member up here on the dais, this document. But this is going to be the original document from the Pentagon about Immaculate Constellation that Michael Shellenberger delivered to Congress today. So, thank you, Mr. Shellenberger, for this information. We are all reading it in real time now, and Mr. Burchett will enter it into the record, but 12 pages about this unacknowledged special access pro- gram that your government says does not exist. So, with that, I would acknowledge my colleague, Mr. Garcia. I want to say, first of all, to Mr. Connolly, who could not be here today, the Ranking Member on my Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, I want to say that I was greatly saddened to hear about the recent news of Mr. Connolly’s cancer diagnosis. And I want to convey to him and to all of our colleagues, we wish our very best to you and a full and speedy recovery. And, with that, I would acknowledge Mr. Garcia for 5 minutes. Mr. GARCIA. Thank you. Thank you very much, Chairwoman. I want to thank the Chairwoman and the Chairman both for their continued support and really treating this discussion and these hearings in a way that is bipartisan. I think one thing that is very important for all of us that are in- terested in the conversation around UAPs, is that this is an area that both Republicans and Democrats, while we may disagree in a lot of other spaces, this is an area where bipartisanship is really important. And, in fact, I would add it is critical that we all con- tinue to work together in a way that moves forward with the truth and important disclosure. So, we are here to have a bipartisan and serious conversation, I believe, about our national security. We should always ground these conversations in facts, evidence, and the data in front of us. I want to note that we have our witnesses here, and I want to thank you all for being here, and note that also amongst you are folks that also served us in our military, and I know that for many of you this is a very difficult process. But I am very grateful to have you with us today, and thank you for joining us.
Hearing transcript, from the hearings collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 52 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.