Key takeaways
- Rep. Tim Burchett introduced H.R. 8197 on 6 April to permanently abolish AARO, the Pentagon's UFO investigation office, and ban any replacement from being created
- Rep. Anna Paulina Luna set a 14 April deadline for the Pentagon to hand over 46 classified UAP videos. Secretary Hegseth pledged compliance but gave no timeline
- Burchett said his latest classified briefing contained 'names, dates, people and locations' that would 'set the Earth on fire' if released publicly
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In the week of 13 April 2026, two parallel congressional actions converged on the Pentagon, and between them, they represented the most direct challenge to the US government's handling of UAP information since the modern disclosure era began.
On one side, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) had introduced legislation to permanently destroy the Pentagon's UAP investigation office. On the other, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) was hours away from a deadline she set for the Defence Department to hand over 46 specific classified UAP videos. The Pentagon was caught between a congressman who thought its UFO office was a cover-up machine and a congresswoman who thought it was sitting on evidence the public deserved to see.
The Bill: H.R. 8197
On 6 April 2026, Burchett introduced H.R. 8197: a bill to terminate the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), the Pentagon body created in 2022 to investigate unidentified anomalous phenomena.
The bill didn't just defund AARO. It would abolish it entirely. Under its provisions, the Secretary of Defense would have 60 days to shut the office down and redistribute its functions across existing military branches. But the sharpest provision is what comes after: H.R. 8197 included a hard legal prohibition preventing either the Secretary of Defense or the Director of National Intelligence from creating any new centralised UAP investigation office in the future. A simple rebrand, the bureaucratic escape hatch that has allowed previous UAP programmes to morph from one name to another, would be legally impossible.
This was not a funding cut or a restructuring proposal. It was an attempt to make centralised Pentagon control of UAP investigation permanently illegal.
Why Burchett Wanted AARO Gone
Burchett had been one of Congress's most vocal UAP transparency advocates since the 2023 House oversight hearing where former intelligence officer David Grusch testified under oath about alleged crash-retrieval programmes. Since then, Burchett had consistently argued that AARO was part of the problem, not the solution.
His case was straightforward: AARO had been operating for four years, spent tens of millions of dollars, and by then had over 2,000 open cases. Yet the office had not publicly identified a single case as genuinely anomalous technology. Its two historical review volumes concluded that there was no evidence of extraterrestrial technology or a cover-up, conclusions that multiple whistleblowers, the Inspector General, and several members of Congress had publicly disputed.
AARO's own director, Dr Jon Kosloski, admitted in November 2024 that the office was analysing "true anomalies" that he, with his physics and engineering background, did not understand. Out of 757 new cases reviewed, 21 were flagged for deeper study. Yet no public explanation had followed.
For Burchett, this pattern, admitting anomalies existed while producing no public answers, was evidence that AARO existed to manage the UAP issue rather than resolve it.
The Deadline: Luna's 46 Videos
Running in parallel was the deadline set by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna. On 31 March 2026, Luna, chair of the House Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, sent a letter to Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth demanding 46 specific classified UAP videos by 14 April.
That deadline fell on 14 April, the day after this post was first published.
The letter was notable for its precision. This was not a general request for "UAP information." Luna named 46 specific incidents, each with dates, locations, platform types, and descriptions. She cited whistleblower testimony that AARO possessed additional unreleased video records beyond what had been shared with Congress, and described previous Pentagon responses as "less than adequate."
Secretary Hegseth reportedly pledged full compliance, but provided no specific timeline for review or release. As of 13 April, there was no public indication that any of the 46 videos had been delivered.
What's on the List
We covered the full list in detail in our earlier post, but the highlights bear repeating. The 46 videos include:
The Lake Huron shootdown: footage from an F-16 (callsign AESIR11) engaging and destroying an octagonal object over Lake Huron on 12 February 2023. This was one of three objects shot down over North America in February 2023, and the US government had never publicly explained what any of them were.
Submarine spheres: footage of spherical objects diving near a US submarine on 25 March 2022.
Afghanistan spheres: video originally leaked by journalist Jeremy Corbell and investigator George Knapp, dated 23 November 2020.
A four-UAP formation over Iran: 26 August 2022.
Instant acceleration in Syria: 2021.
Coast Guard Tic Tacs: objects filmed from a C-144 aircraft on 24 April 2024.
The specificity mattered. These were not vague references. Luna had named exact dates, platforms, and incident descriptions, which meant the Pentagon could not credibly claim the videos didn't exist or that it didn't know which recordings she was referring to.
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Names, Dates, People and Locations
Burchett did not limit himself to legislation. In a series of public appearances across early April, he made his most detailed, and alarming, statements yet about what he had seen in classified settings.
On 11 April, he told reporters he had recently received a briefing in which someone "named names, dates, people in the meetings" and specific locations where "these items, if you will, are located." He described the information as something that "would've set the Earth on fire" if made public, and said Americans would "be up at night worrying" if they knew the truth.
He added: "The people that know are dying or disappearing, and for the record, I'm not suicidal."
That last line was a reference to a pattern Burchett and other UAP advocates had highlighted: that individuals connected to alleged crash-retrieval programmes had died or gone missing under circumstances they found suspicious. The most recent case, retired Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland, who commanded the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson AFB and was named in the WikiLeaks Podesta emails in a UAP context, disappeared from Albuquerque in February 2026 and had not been found at the time of writing.
Two Strategies, One Target
What made that week unusual was that Burchett and Luna were applying pressure from opposite directions, but toward the same goal.
Luna's approach was extractive: give us the evidence. She wanted the Pentagon to hand over specific classified material so Congress could evaluate it. Her strategy assumed the system could work if forced to be transparent.
Burchett's approach was destructive: tear down the institution. He wanted to abolish the office entirely, arguing that AARO's centralised structure allowed the Pentagon to control, filter, and suppress UAP information before it reached Congress or the public. His strategy assumed the system was the problem.
Both strategies converged on the same uncomfortable question for the Pentagon: if AARO was doing its job, why couldn't Congress see the evidence? And if it wasn't doing its job, why did it still exist?
What Was Expected Next
The deadline on 14 April was the first test. If the Pentagon delivered the 46 videos, or even acknowledged the request publicly, it would have represented an unprecedented level of compliance with congressional UAP demands. If it didn't, Luna would have the political ammunition to escalate: subpoenas, public hearings, or direct appeals to the White House.
Burchett's bill faced a longer road. H.R. 8197 needed to pass through the House Armed Services Committee, survive floor votes, and navigate the Senate. Abolishing a Pentagon office is not something Congress does casually. But the bill's existence served a purpose whether or not it became law: it signalled to the Pentagon that congressional patience with AARO was running out.
Meanwhile, the White House remained the wild card. Trump's UFO disclosure executive order, signed in early 2026, promised the release of classified UAP files. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence had said declassification would happen "soon", but had provided no timeline. Burchett said he had spoken with "folks at the White House" and expected "some things will be coming out."
The next 48 hours were expected to show whether "soon" meant anything at all.
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Ian ClaytonAmateur astronomer and founder of WatchTheStars.co.uk, dedicated to helping others explore the wonders of our universe. Full profile →
