America's First UAP Caucus
Checking in 7 months later ...
As some UFO pundits are fond of saying: “you might not care about UFOs, but your government does.” That interest certainly escalated last year when, on August 22, 2023, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) launched the first UAP Caucus in American history.1
What’s a caucus? A caucus is just a group of like-minded legislators, in either the House or Senate, who come together around some shared policy interest. You might be familiar with some examples from the news like the House Freedom Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus, or my personal favorite, the newly-minted Mach 1 Caucus.
Caucuses usually hold legislators from both parties, which makes these groups effective at brokering deals in Washington. Until now, there has never been any congressional group that publicly dedicated itself to UFO advocacy and the mere establishment of this group is a giant step forward for those interested in the file.
As it was announced, the UAP Caucus consisted of six Congressional Representatives:2
But looking at this group seven months later, how’s it been doing? There are some early conclusions that shed some light on U.S. UFO policy and show where the file might be headed. And since I’m from the government and here to help, I’d suggest we start by taking a look at:
Who It Includes …
There’s no way around it – this is a mostly Republican effort. That’s not a bad thing, it’s just that caucuses work best when they function across party lines. While there’s been some significant support from key Democrats in the Senate, that support hasn’t translated into the House or this particular UAP Caucus.
Many UFO advocates have long feared the idea that this file could become a partisan, one-party issue. Investigation and transparency would not be served well by the kind of gridlock that exists on most other issues in the U.S. Congress. But as much as the headlines last summer were happy to report that “UFOs and aliens [are] bringing a divided Congress together,” there’s some reason to believe that’s not true. If it were, you would hope to see a growing, bi-partisan balance from the people joining this signature advocacy group. So far that just hasn’t materialized.
Who It Does Not Include …
We could speculate quite a bit about why certain Congressional Representatives may or may not want to join this group, but I think we could start that with a delicate conversation about Matt Gaetz (R-FL). While Gaetz was technically not included in the list of founding members of the UAP Caucus, he has been present at major UAP Caucus hearings and press conferences all along the way (becoming an official member in March 2024). Why is that a problem? Because in the interest of keeping things politically neutral, Gaetz is a big personality and a controversial figure. In March 2021 Gaetz was embroiled in an investigation into possible sex trafficking.3 By October 2023, Gaetz lead a successful challenge that overthrew a key leader in his own party (Kevin McCarthy).4 This likely had a repellant effect to both Democrats and Republicans when it came to associating with this small group. It’s notable, for example, that key UAP advocates like Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) never signed on. Is that motivated by Gaetz? There’s some reason to believe that’s true. And that’s a shame because Gaetz himself appears to be leading the charge in advocating for UAP transparency, it’s just that he’s leading too many other controversial charges as well.
Size Matters …
The Congressional Black Caucus? 60 members. House Freedom Caucus? 41 members. These are the kinds of numbers that influence policy and make these names show up in the news. But since it’s founding in August 2023, the UAP Caucus has only grown from six to eight members. And while it’s nice to see growth, that number is still not enough to have a substantial impact on a legislative body with 435 House Reps sitting in it.
Speaking of those House Reps, all 435 of them will be going up for election in November 2024. And for a caucus that only has 8 people in it, it’s not great that three of them meet the polling threshold for what’s called a “competitive race.” This notably includes the only Democrat (Jared Moskowitz) whose loss could make this caucus a truly partisan endeavor. Other potential removals would include Nancy Mace and Anna Paulina Luna, whose loss could make this an all-male endeavor. I’ll leave it to your imagination to speculate how an all male, all Republican UAP Caucus might be treated in the press.5
And So Does Experience …
The final headwind facing the UAP Caucus is the overall lack of Congressional experience held by its current (and potentially remaining) members. Simply put, this caucus lacks the kind of heavy hitting lifetime politicians who could make real political headway with this issue. In fact, the longest serving member of the caucus is the aforementioned Matt Gaetz, which carries its own issues. It’s unclear where the block is where it comes to getting more veteran legislators on board, but it is clear that would be a necessary step if the UAP Caucus is going to actually achieve its stated goals of advocacy, transparency, and Congressional engagement on the file.6
In Conclusion
The current state of America’s UAP Caucus is a little more fragile than you might like to see at this point. Even though the last seven months have featured important advocacy letters and positive headlines, the UFO community would do well to prepare itself for mixed results. The best forecast for this group right now suggests there’s still a lot of work to do going forward. And who knows, maybe America’s first UAP caucus won’t be its last.
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Press Release. “Rep. Burchett Launches UAP Caucus, Leads Letter to Intelligence Community Inspector General about UAP Retrieval Programs.” Congressman Tim Burchett, August 22, 2023. https://burchett.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-burchett-launches-uap-caucus-leads-letter-intelligence-community-inspector.
Burchett, Tim. “Letter to Inspector General Monheim.” Congressman Tim Burchett, August 21, 2023. https://burchett.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/burchett.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/letter-to-ic-ig-re-uap-hearing.pdf.
Schmidt, Michael, Katie Benner, and Nicholas Fandos. “Matt Gaetz Is Said to Face Justice Dept. Inquiry Over Sex With an Underage Girl.” The New York Times, March 30, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/30/us/politics/matt-gaetz-sex-trafficking-investigation.html.
Cabral, Sam. “Matt Gaetz Sat Alone but Still Won His Fight with Kevin McCarthy.” BBC, October 3, 2023. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67002524.
Note: The year each representative was first elected to federal office was pulled from each of their respective Wikipedia pages.