VIDEO: Reps. Burchett and Luna promise UFO hearing just beginning

“We'll get some legislation out of this," Burchett tells Ask a Pol

The US Capitol is abuzz with UFO chatter today after the House Oversight Committee conducted the first public hearing on UAP (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) whistleblower David Grusch. 

Grusch claims the federal government has retrieved alien craft and kept the program hidden from Congress, and the inspector general vetted his allegations and sent it along for lawmakers to investigate. 

“I was informed in the course of my official duties of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse engineering program to which I was denied access,” Grusch testified under oath. 

Grusch is a former intelligence official and is forbidden from revealing classified information, which became a hallmark of the hearing. 

“I’d be happy to discuss that in a closed session,” Grusch said. “I have to be careful… in this environment, but I could answer that question behind closed doors.” 

Still, many lawmakers say Grusch’s testimony was so convincing they plan to hear from more government employees in near future and craft new legislation out of it. 

“We'll get some legislation out of this. I’m shocked at the amount of information that came out, because all the roadblocks that were put up against us,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) tells Ask a Pol. “I think, what's gonna happen now, the floodgates: Other people are gonna say, ‘You know, I’ve got some information, I’d like to be sworn in.’ We're going to start talking to people, we're going to start naming names.”

Grusch was joined by former Navy pilot Ryan Graves and Commander David Fravor (ret.), who witnessed the infamous 2004 UAP sighting known as the Tic Tac video. The two and a half hour hearing didn’t disappoint. 

“I have never seen this type of press coverage in my life,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) says. 

Possibly the most attention-piquing part of the hearing came after Burchett asked if there had been a government disinformation campaign to deny the existence of UAPs, Grusch replied he can’t go beyond what he’s already “espoused publicly.”

Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly ID-ed Graves as the person who shot the Tik Tac video. Our apologies.

Matt Laslo is a veteran congressional correspondent and founder of Ask a Pol—a people-powered press corps. Find him on most social media @MattLaslo. 

We’re @Ask_a_Pol or @askpols on Insta.