Burchett told Bannon he “has a commitment” from both House speaker Kevin McCarthy and House Oversight Committee chair James Comer to hold a hearing on UAPs, though he says it’s not a top priority for party leaders. “We’re only going to get about one bite at the apple,” Burchett said.

If the Pentagon—which vigorously denies the whistleblower’s charges of a secret UAP program—or NASA officials ask to brief lawmakers behind closed doors, which is common when classified information is discussed, Burchett’s not interested. “I'm not gonna be a part of it if it's classified. That's ridiculous,” Burchett said on the podcast. “That's just more of the same and creates more myths and rumors than it creates facts.”

Burchett is joined by two Florida Republican representatives: Matt Gaetz—“I have seen evidence of craft that I am not familiar with any of our allies or adversaries or even our country possessing”—and Anna Paulina Luna, who believes the government has been lying to the public about UAP’s “for decades.”

While Luna and Burchett will likely head up the House inquiry and eventual hearing, it’s not just fringe-right members whose ears perked up over these allegations. This includes Representative Mike McCaul, a Texas Republican and chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “It’s a legitimate issue. On both sides, we just want to know if we've been seeing [UAPs] that are not man-made—is what the article said, but I don't know,” he says. “But that's a good question for the chairman” of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

That’s why one of McCaul’s first reactions to the article was to forward it to the House Intelligence Committee chair, Mike Turner, whose office didn’t reply to multiple requests for comment.

The Senate has also shown interest in UAPs in recent years, and the increased pressure on federal officials has produced results—including a massive spike in the number of UAPs the government monitors.   

In its June 2021 report, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence disclosed 144 UAP sightings stretching back nearly two decades. After years of mounting smartphone evidence, unanswered questions, and frustrated lawmakers, the military unveiled its newly rebooted and renamed All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO; pronounced “arrow”). 

With a department mandated with tracking secrets in the skies, sightings skyrocketed. Last August, AARO officials disclosed more than 500 reports of UAPs. By this April, there were some 650 cases. And just last month, the Pentagon, which oversees AARO, hiked the number to roughly 800 mysterious flying objects. 

While Grusch’s claims of alien life and recovered craft have made headlines, senators are alarmed by accusations that the federal government is hiding Special Access Programs from Congress.

“We need to just look into whether there are rogue SAP programs that no one is providing oversight for,” says Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat who led the Senate’s April UAP hearing. “The goal for me will be to have a hearing on that at some point so that we can assess if these SAP’s actually exist.”