Bipartisan legislation sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) aimed to establish a process with the ostensible goal of revealing the existence of “non-human intelligence” to the public. But the legislation, which is co-sponsored by three Republican and two Democratic senators, is now in jeopardy.

In comments yesterday on the Senate floor, Schumer stated that “House Republicans are also attempting to kill another commonsense, bipartisan measure passed by the Senate, which I was proud to cosponsor… to increase transparency around what the government does and does not know about unidentified aerial phenomena.”

According to reports, Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, are leading efforts to prevent any meaningful version of this provision from being added to the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act.

Members of Congress generally clamor for enhanced government oversight — a core function of the legislative branch — and transparency. So what could cause a small group of influential lawmakers to suddenly resist it?

  • SCB@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    The Pentagon does not have the authority to withhold information from properly-vetted members of Congress - they have been denying access through various loopholes to anyone.

    In fact, one of the things discovered this year is that several major defense contractors have had ongoing “projects” for decades in which each part of the project is so compartmentalized that, quite simply, no one can even begin to suggest what the project is actually doing. These are not uncommon right now in the more confidential areas of our government, but the strange thing is the utter impermeability of them.

    There are significant amounts of Senators and House members, of both sides, who suspect an embezzlement operation basically funneling cash chasing projects that will never materialize as anything

    The more you dig into this the crazier it gets. I’m not even talking about the actual UAPs, just potentially of billions of embezzled funds with nothing to show for it and nothing that will ever come of it

    I believe citizens absolutely have a right to know if this kind of theft is happening.