UFO Hearing Update: Tim Burchett 'Informed' He Won't Be Chairman

Republican Representative Tim Burchett, one of the leading lawmakers behind the House's investigation of UFOs, said on Tuesday that he will not be chairing the coming hearing on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP).

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called on the Department of Defense (DOD) to provide more transparency about what the U.S. government knows about unexplainable phenomena in light of several witnesses coming forward in recent months to share their experiences with UAP. The House Oversight Committee is scheduled to hear testimony from three such witnesses Wednesday morning: former Navy pilot Ryan Graves, ex-Navy commander David Fravor and former U.S. intelligence officer David Grusch.

But on the night before the hearing, Burchett alerted his constituents over Twitter that he had been "informed" that he would not be chairing the hearing, despite his work alongside GOP Representative Anna Paulina Luna to lead the Oversight Committee's current investigation into UAP.

"Yeah, I'm upset," Burchett told The Hill Tuesday. "I mean, you know, I've spent a lot of time helping put this thing together. It's just politics."

Wednesday's hearing will be held in front of the House subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs. As standard, the subcommittee chair, Representative Glenn Grothman, will lead the hearing. Representative Robert Garcia, the ranking Democrat on the National Security subcommittee, will lead the Democrats, as is normal procedure as well.

According to the report, House Oversight Chairman James Comer said that Burchett "misunderstood" his role in the coming hearing, adding, "he's not a committee chairman." Instead, Comer said that Burchett is going to give an opening statement and get to ask 20 questions.

A spokesperson for Burchett told Newsweek via email on Wednesday that the congressman plans to attend the entirety of the UAP hearing "regardless of his position."

"I appreciate all the support," Burchett tweeted later in the night Tuesday. "Let's all work to get the truth and real transparency on the #UAP issue."

Eligible voters have become increasingly interested in the government's knowledge of UFOs, with 57 percent of respondents in a Redfield & Wilton Strategies poll this month saying that they believed the U.S. government had more information on UFOs than what it was sharing. The survey was conducted just a few weeks after Grusch, one of Wednesday's witnesses, accused the U.S. of harboring partially or fully intact vehicles that were of "non-human origin."

But Sue Gough, spokesperson for the DOD, told Newsweek earlier this week that the department had not recovered any "verifiable information" to support such claims by Grusch. The DOD also said it is "fully committed to openness and accountability to the American people, which it must balance with its obligation to protect sensitive information, sources, and methods."

Wednesday's hearing is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. EST and can be watched live by following this link.

Update 7/26/23, 8:58 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional comment from Rep. Tim Burchett.