Among the many unusual provisions of the US's latest COVID-19 relief bill was a section stipulating that American intelligence would have 180 days to deliver to the Congressional intelligence and armed services committee a report summarizing their knowledge of UFOs.
Both the provision and the approximate six months until it comes into effect were passed in the "committee comments" section of the relief bill.
The report must describe in detail any documented but unexplained aerial encounters, and provide "an interagency process for ensuring timely data collection and centralized analysis of all unidentified aerial phenomena reporting for the Federal Government" and designate an official responsible for that process. The report should identify any possible threat to the security of the United States these encounters may pose, and provide for the continual tracking of those threats.
The report itself, said the committee, should not be classified, although there may be classified annexes or supplementary material.
The Pentagon has recently released short videos of some such phenomena, including three brief clips taken from thermal cameras of US aircraft. Servicemen can be heard confirming that there is an unknown object on camera and expressing dismay at its acceleration. one voice speculates that it may be a drone.
With no clear understanding of what the objects in question might be, the Pentagon reported they were forming a task force to investigate the matter.
This is far from the first time the legislature has demanded to know more about the Pentagon's research into UFOs. Sen. Harry Reid, for instance, succeeded in having two investigations opened into such incidents in 2007, although both have been shelved since 2012 when funding priorities shifted.
That program was launched in 2007 and ended in 2012, according to the Pentagon, because they assessed that there were higher priorities that needed funding. The former head of those investigations remarked to CNN that 'We may not be alone.'
