The UAP Disclosure Act: Legislative History and Current Status
Full legislative history of the UAP Disclosure Act — the Schumer-Rounds amendment first introduced in 2023, narrowed in conference, and reintroduced in 2024 — and how it connects to the 2026 war.gov/UFO disclosure.
The UAP Disclosure Act is the working name for a sequence of U.S. Senate amendments — primarily authored by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD) — that propose a federal records-review board with subpoena authority to declassify UAP material. The first version was introduced as an amendment to the FY2024 National Defense Authorization Act in July 2023, modeled explicitly on the 1992 President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act. The Senate version passed; the House-Senate conference substantially narrowed the language, stripping the independent Review Board but retaining reporting requirements, whistleblower protections, and a narrower eminent-domain authority over recovered material. Schumer and Rounds reintroduced an expanded version in 2024. The PURSUE Release 01 disclosure at war.gov/UFO operates under the surviving statutory framework, including 50 U.S.C. § 3373.
“Modeled explicitly on the 1992 President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act.”
The 2023 Senate amendment
In July 2023, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD) introduced an amendment to the FY2024 NDAA that would have established an independent UAP Records Review Board, appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, with subpoena authority over executive-branch agencies. The board would compel disclosure of records concerning "unidentified anomalous phenomena, technologies of unknown origin, and non-human intelligence." The amendment passed the Senate with broad bipartisan support.
What was stripped in conference
The House-Senate FY2024 NDAA conference, finalized in December 2023, substantially narrowed the Senate-passed text. The independent UAP Records Review Board was removed entirely. Eminent-domain authority over recovered "technologies of unknown origin" — a key provision — was struck. Whistleblower protections, narrower reporting requirements, and a Comptroller General review survived. Senator Schumer publicly criticized the conference outcome as a victory for a small group of senators who had blocked the broader text.
The 2024 reintroduction
Schumer and Rounds reintroduced an expanded version of the amendment in 2024, again as an NDAA amendment. The 2024 version included tightened definitions of "non-human intelligence" and additional federal-records preservation requirements. Passage status remained contested in conference at the time of the 2026 PURSUE Release 01.
Connection to PURSUE
PURSUE — the Presidential Unsealing & Reporting System for UAP Encounters — is the executive-branch program that produced the 2026-05-08 war.gov/UFO disclosure. PURSUE operates under the surviving statutory framework, including 50 U.S.C. § 3373 and the narrower disclosure provisions retained in the FY2024 NDAA. The 162 files released under PURSUE Release 01 are the first formal output of the framework. Researchers can monitor war.gov/UFO and UAP.WATCH for subsequent releases.