Congress promises to 'pull back the curtain' on secret UFO research as whistleblowers prepare to testify

US Congress has promised to 'pull back the curtain' on secret UAP research programs conducted in the shadows of the government in a court of law.

A second slew of hearings into UFOs is scheduled for November 13, led by the House Oversight Committee, with former military officials and an aerospace expert set to testify about their knowledge of secret US programs.

Lawmakers have promised 'to explore firsthand accounts of [UFOs]' and 'assess the federal government's transparency and accountability regarding their ' possible threats to national security .'

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), a member of the subcommittee, said: 'The Pentagon and Washington bureaucrats have kept this information hidden for decades, and we're finally going to shed some light on it.

'We're bringing in credible witnesses who can provide public testimony because the American people deserve the truth. We're done with the cover-ups.'

There will be four witnesses set to testify under oath, including former Department of Defense Official Luis Elizondo and former NASA Associate Administrator Michael Gold.

Next week's hearing, set for 11:30am ET, will be a joint effort by Rep Nancy Mace (R-SC) and Rep Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.).

'This is our second hearing on the topic of UAPs and the American people are tired of the obfuscation and refusal to release information by the federal government, they said in a shared statement.

'Americans deserve to understand what the government has learned about UAP sightings and the nature of any potential threats these phenomena pose.

'We can only ensure that understanding by providing consistent, systemic transparency. We look forward to hearing from expert witnesses on ways to shed more light and bring greater accountability to this issue.'

The committee has not released details on cases to be presented on Wednesday but provided the list of witnesses.

Elizondo, a career US Army counterintelligence specialist, previously ran the military's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program.

He recently hosted a private event in Philadelphia on October 28 to reveal an image of an alleged UFO 'mothership.'

'There's a whole lot more here folks,' Elizondo told the audience in a leaked clip. 'I just want to give you kind of a small taste of what's going on 'behind the scenes.''

'We're having pilots, military pilots and civilian pilots in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, report what unimaginably seems impossible,' as Elizondo explained his 'real photo' of a UFO .

'They described it literally 'the mothership,' Elizondo said.

Investigative journalist Michael Shellenberger will also be sworn under oath.

Shellenberger — who is also an academic and a two-time candidate for California governor — went viral last month after publishing one of his anonymous whistleblower's accounts of an alleged UFO data collection program.

That classified UFO data retrieval effort, dubbed 'Immaculate Constellation,' was established in 2017 to ' detect' and 'quarantine' the military's best UFO imagery, along with its best videos, witness testimonies and electronic sensor evidence .

Dr Tim Gallaudet, former rear admiral in the US Navy, launched a probe in March into unidentified submersible objects (USOs), specifically strange sightings on the seabed off the coast of California.

Gold is a former NASA Associate Administrator who was part of the agency's UAP study in October 2022, which focused solely on unclassified data.

Over nine months, the independent study team will lay the groundwork for future studies on the nature of UAPs for NASA and other organizations.

The hearing follows the bombshell case last year that was held by Burchett and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla).

David Grusch - a former high-ranking intelligence official - was one of three military whistleblowers who testified under oath that they had firsthand encounters or knowledge about secret government programs involving technology that is 'non-human.'

He claimed that the US has been in possession of UFOs since 'the 1930s' and has been secretly back-engineering them and carrying out a public disinformation campaign to prevent the details from leaking publicly.

During the hearing, Burchett asked Grusch: 'Personally, have you heard anyone [has] been murdered?'

Grusch replied: 'I have to be careful answering that question. I directed people with that knowledge to the appropriate authorities.'

He was sworn in Wednesday, along with Ryan Graves, an esteemed former pilot, and Navy veteran fighter pilot Commander David Fravor, who witnessed the 2004 'Tic Tac' UFO.

Graves, a former F-18 pilot with over a decade of service in the US Navy, was the first to give opening statements.

'My testimony is based on information I've been given by individuals with a long-standing track record of legitimacy and service to this country, many of whom have shared compelling evidence in the form of photography, official documentation and classified oral testimony to myself and many various colleagues,' Graves told lawmakers, stating he was driven to share it by a 'commitment to truth and transparency.'

Burchett described the 2023 hearing as 'historical.'

'I'd like to thank these three brave witnesses here. They took an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States and, dagnammit, they're doing it,' he continued.

'We're not bringing little green men or flying saucers into the hearing — sorry to disappoint about half of y'all — we're just going to get to the facts.

'We're going to uncover the cover-up, and I hope this is just the beginning of many more hearings and many more people coming forward about this.'