They Wrote a UFO Law Modelled on the JFK Files. Then They Gutted It.
Schumer and Rounds proposed a records board with subpoena power and eminent domain over recovered materials. What survived into law was a filing requirement.
In July 2023 the Senate Majority Leader put his name on a UFO bill. Chuck Schumer and Mike Rounds introduced the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act as an amendment to the annual defence authorisation, explicitly modelled on the 1992 President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act. 13
The architecture was borrowed wholesale from that precedent, and it was aggressive. A UAP Records Collection at the National Archives. A presumption of disclosure. And a presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed Review Board with subpoena power — plus eminent domain authority over recovered materials and technologies of unknown origin held by private parties. 2
That last clause is the one that made the bill remarkable. The federal government does not write eminent domain provisions for things it believes do not exist.
The Senate passed the amendment as part of its version of the FY2024 NDAA. 2
What came out the other end
In conference with the House, it was dismantled. The eminent domain mandate was stripped. The independent Review Board was eliminated. 45 What was enacted was a much narrower provision directing the National Archives to collect certain UAP records. 4
Reporting attributed the defeat primarily to opposition from the Pentagon, exercised through the House Intelligence Committee. 4 A Pentagon and AARO redraft circulated in November 2023 proposed its own substantially weaker version. 6
The Senate voted for subpoenas and eminent domain. The law that emerged asked an archive to keep files. The distance between those two documents is the most accurate measure available of who actually controls this subject.
The long tail
Schumer said the enacted text was a foundation and that he would keep pushing. 4 Rounds has repeatedly said he will renew the effort. 7 Representative Eric Burlison reintroduced a UAP Disclosure Act as an NDAA amendment in 2025 and again the following cycle, carrying the same core: a records collection, an independent review board, and a hard public-disclosure deadline. 8
Three years of legislative attempts have now produced one filing requirement. The bills keep being written because the thing they were written to reach has never been produced.
SOURCES
This report was written by UFONN from the reporting and primary documents below. Numbers in the text correspond to this list. Every link goes to the original publisher.
- 1Schumer and Rounds introduce legislation to declassify government records on UAPSenate Democrats
- 2Senators Rounds and Schumer submit UAP Disclosure Act as possible amendment to NDAADouglas Johnson
- 3Young co-leads amendment to declassify information, including UFOsSen. Young
- 4Congress scraps provision to declassify information about UFOsStraight Arrow News
- 5Implications of the UAP Amendment in the 2024 National Defense Authorization ActInside Government Contracts
- 6The UAP Disclosure Act: The proposed Pentagon/AARO re-write of November 2023Douglas Johnson
- 7Sen. Rounds will renew push for UAP disclosure legislationNewsNation
- 8Rep. Burlison Introduces UAP Disclosure Act of 2025 as Amendment to NDAANewstalk KZRG
