Who?
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) — Member, Armed Services & Intelligence Committees
LISTEN: Laslo & Rounds
Ask a Pol asks:
Rep. Eric Burlison told Ask a Pol Senate Appropriations staff killed your UAP Disclosure Act — or UAPDA — with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Then we asked Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, and she said she’d never heard of it.
Do you know who in the Senate killed the UAPDA in this year’s NDAA or National Defense Authorization Act?
Key Rounds:
“I thought it was House that had the disagreements,” Sen. Mike Rounds exclusively tells Ask a Pol UAP.*
*Laslo’s head almost spun off…
Really? So you guys still don’t even know?
“No,” Rounds says. “At some stage of the game, disclosure is better than not. And I think it’ll ease folks just in terms of transparency and make it a little bit easier to get some of our work done in the Armed Services Committee just because there are so many people that think that there’s, you know, something that is not being talked about.”
God, this Congress is depressing…
…your support energizes our increasingly cynical selves.
Caught our ear:
“There’s something there,” Rounds tells us. “And the question is, you know: yours, mine or ours?”
TRANSCRIPT: Sen. Mike Rounds (12-18-2025)
SCENE: Ask a Pol‘s Matt Laslo is hovering in back of Sen. Mike Rounds as he answers questions from a gaggle of congressional reporters in the basement of the US Capitol.
Once Rounds wraps up the impromptu presser, the Senator and an aide enter a Senators Only elevator. Laslo slides his notebook in to keep the doors from closing as he enters, while asking permission to join them…
Matt Laslo: “Senator Rounds.”
Sen. Mike Rounds: “Hey.”
Laslo: “Do you mind if I…”
Laslo slides onto Senators Only elevator.
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Laslo: “So I was talking to Congressman Burlison about your UAP Disclosure Act with Schumer…”
Rounds: “Oh, okay.”
Laslo: “Like, do you know who over here killed it…”
Rounds: “Over here?”
Laslo: “…this time around?”
Rounds: “I do not.”
Laslo: “Burlison told me it might have been Appropriation staff?”
ICYMI — Ask a Pol’s latest Burlison exclusive…
Rounds: “I don’t know.”
Laslo: “Then I asked [Senate Appropriations Chair Susan] Collins, and she said she’d never heard of it.”
Rounds: “No? I have not…”
Laslo: “Does Appropriations staff get a sign-off on NDAA?”
An unsure Rounds shakes his head no-to-I-don’t-know...
Laslo: “So he might have meant SASC — [Senate] Armed Services [Committee]?”
Rounds: “Might have been, but I didn’t — I thought it was House that had the disagreements?”
Laslo: “Really?”
Rounds: “Yeah.”
Laslo: “So you guys still don’t even know?”
Rounds: “No, I mean, I just — I just think at some stage of the game, disclosure is better than not. And I think it’ll ease folks just in terms of transparency and make it a little bit easier to get some of our work done in the Armed Services Committee just because there are so many people that think that there’s, you know, something that is not being talked about.”
Laslo: “Yeah? Have you broached it — I mean, because [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio’s talked a lot about it, and he was investigating it when he was on [Senate] Intel. Like, are there any people in the [Trump] Administration who would be supportive of that?”
Rounds: “I can’t tell you.”
Laslo: “Yeah?”
Rounds: “I don’t know.”
Laslo: “But you guys haven’t reached out?”
Rounds: “No.”
Laslo: “Yeah.”
Rounds: “It’s just, you know, we’ve seen a lot of issues surrounding items that have not been explained to the public, and yet it’s been made public that these pictures and so forth are there.”
Rounds and Laslo stop just outside the floor of the US Senate, which is a high traffic area.
Laslo: “Yeah.”
Rounds: “And, you know, there’s something there. And the question is, you know: yours, mine or ours?”
Laslo: “Yeah?”
Slowly a couple congressional reporters and TV producers start surrounding the Senator who’s at the center of bipartisan negotiations on how to potentially stave off massive health care premium spikes in the New Year…
Rounds: “You know, does it belong to one of our adversaries? Does it belong to us? Is it something that is different that we just simply don’t know about? So...”
Laslo: “Yeah.”
Laslo motions for his colleagues to ask their questions next.
Reporter: “Can I ask you about the health care talks?”*
*PSA: Don’t ask to ask a question — just ask it.
What would you ask Congress?
Ask a Pol AI Disclosure:
Ask a Pol‘s playing around with as many new AI tools as we can, so this small, unfunded startup can compete in today’s new media landscape. AI isn’t tommorrow tech — it’s yesterdays…
