Witness

Mike Rounds

U.S. Senator (R-SD); Senate Armed Services Committee; co-author of the Schumer–Rounds UAP Disclosure Act

On camera in The Age of Disclosure: Speaks on the UAP Disclosure Act, the political resistance it ran into, and the case for an independent records review board with eminent-domain authority.

Mike Rounds, a U.S. Senator from South Dakota since 2015^[1], is a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee^[2]. With then-Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Rounds co-authored the UAP Disclosure Act of 2023, an amendment to the FY2024 National Defense Authorization Act that proposed a Records Review Board with eminent-domain authority over recovered UAP-related materials^[3].

While the most far-reaching provisions of the amendment were stripped from the final FY2024 NDAA^[4], Rounds has continued to push for the underlying legislation in subsequent congresses.

Citations

Senator from South Dakota since 2015 — Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress
Member, Senate Armed Services Committee — Senate Armed Services Committee — Membership
Co-author with Sen. Schumer of the UAP Disclosure Act of 2023 — UAP Disclosure Act amendment text
Records Review Board provisions stripped from final FY2024 NDAA — H.R.2670 — National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024

Connected events

Official Statement
April 27, 2025
Attorney and Former Marine Intelligence Analyst Proposes UAP Registration Act as Alternative to Stalled Disclosure Legislation
On April 27, 2025, The Debrief published an op-ed by Sean Munger — an attorney and former United States Marine Corps intelligence analyst — introducing a proposed legislative framework called the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Registration Act (UAPRA). Munger argues that the UAPRA offers a more effective and transparent path to UAP disclosure than the existing Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act (UAPDA), which was co-introduced by Senators Mike Rounds and Charles Schumer but has twice failed to become law in its intended form. Munger contends that the UAPDA, as currently structured, centralizes control of UAP-related materials within the Executive Branch through a nine-person review board, replicating the opacity it ostensibly seeks to remedy. The UAPRA, by contrast, would require private and government entities to register and submit to inspection of any non-human intelligence (NHI) materials or biological evidence in their possession, embedding oversight within existing regulatory structures rather than creating a new executive-controlled body. Munger draws parallels to established regulatory regimes governing nuclear, pharmaceutical, and aviation industries, and argues the UAPRA would balance national security interests with public transparency while also generating taxable economic activity.

Attorney and Former Marine Intelligence Analyst Proposes UAP Registration Act as Alternative to Stalled Disclosure Legislation