Grusch and bipartisan lawmakers demand UAP record declassification on the Capitol steps

On June 9, 2026, former intelligence officer and UAP whistleblower David Grusch appeared with a bipartisan group of members of the U.S. House of Representatives on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to call for the declassification and public release of federal records concerning unidentified anomalous phenomena. The members present included Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.), Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), and Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.). Investigative journalist Leslie Kean and documentary filmmaker James Fox also took part.

The speakers advanced three central demands. The first was congressional passage of the UAP Disclosure Act, legislation that would require federal agencies to declassify and publish UAP-related records and would strengthen statutory protections for whistleblowers. The second was an assurance that career intelligence officials would not obstruct the executive branch's declassification directive. The third was broader international cooperation, encouraging allied governments to contribute their own UAP records.

'President Trump is the first president to take concrete steps towards transparency on UAP,' Rep. Burlison said. 'The recent releases are an important start, so now it's the obligation of Congress to make sure career intelligence officials don't obstruct his directive.'

Grusch — who in July 2023 testified under oath before the House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs that the U.S. government operates a long-running classified program to retrieve and reverse-engineer non-human craft — used the Capitol appearance to speak more directly about what he says the government has catalogued. Describing the nature of the intelligence behind the phenomena, he said the non-human presence is not a single type of being. 'It's a continuum from corporeal bipedal type life to, you know, what I would consider is like sentient plasma life,' Grusch said. 'But there are several that this government is aware of.' He provided no documents or imagery to substantiate the characterization and did not identify the programs he says hold the underlying evidence.

He also repeated his allegation that the recovery-and-analysis effort is funded outside normal congressional oversight. 'During my investigation, I found slush funds to the tune of billions of dollars per annum for these activities,' Grusch said, and argued that political appointees had failed to comply with existing disclosure law.

The lawmakers cast the fight as one of accountability. 'There must be real penalties for officials who knowingly withhold information from Congress,' Rep. Burlison said. Rep. Moskowitz, who co-chairs the House UAP Caucus, pressed the point bluntly: 'Disclosure today, disclosure tomorrow. The American people deserve to know.' Rep. Luna, who chairs the House Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, called for immunity and nondisclosure-agreement waivers to protect witnesses who come forward with knowledge of recovered materials or craft. The press conference produced no documentary disclosures; its organizers framed it as an effort to convert prior congressional testimony into binding legislation and enforced records releases.