'It's not about little green man or flying saucers. It's about tens of millions of dollars our federal government is spending on something ... (it says) does not exist'
Congressman says there's a UFO 'cover-up'
Rep. Tim Burchett said he's frustrated trying to get to the bottom of the UFO issue, adding the government is spending ‘tens of millions of dollars.’
A U.S. congressman said he believes there's a government UFO "cover-up" and is fed up with what he characterized as diversion tactics and stonewalling while millions of dollars seemingly vanish into a black hole.
Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., who's been a leading voice trying to get to the bottom of the UFO debate, expressed his frustration with the government on this topic in an interview with Fox News Digital.
"I think there is a cover-up," he said. "I mean, it's a cover-up when you release a file, and it's just half blacked out. And there's a cover-up when one group says one federal authority says something exists, and then another federal authority says it doesn't exist. That's a cover-up.
"So, yeah, it exists. The cover-up is real, for whatever reason. And you're spending tens of millions of dollars on it on something that you say doesn't exist, yet you continue spending the money on it. It makes you wonder."
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Last week, Burchett was one of about a dozen people in a SCIF, a sensitive compartmented information facility, about UFOs, which is a highly classified briefing, and he left feeling "discouraged, as all this other stuff is."
"The cover-up is real, for whatever reason."
— Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn.
Instead of releasing classified files to the public that a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers had been calling for, federal government officials "bring you in a secure setting, even for the most mundane so-called facts. And, to me, that just reeks of a cover."
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Because the meeting was classified, Burchett couldn't discuss the details, but he said he didn't learn anything new and wondered why it couldn't be discussed in public.
"I really think the whole thing is so compartmentalized that we'll never get to the bottom of it until you have a commander-in-chief who says enough is enough. We just got to put this stuff out. Let's clear the air. And let's move on," Burchett said.
"Like I said before, it's not about little green man or flying saucers, it's about tens of millions of dollars that our federal government is spending on something that at least some of the members of the federal government say does not exist. Yet they will not release all the files."
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At times, Burchett said he felt like they were close to getting answers, but then they're told they have to ask someone else.
"And that person isn't in the SCIF, and then you start all over again. We need a coliseum to put everyone in one place, so we get all the questions answered."
As recently as 2021, an Intelligence Community Control Access program "was expanded to protect UAP reverse-engineering … without sufficient justification," the Pentagon's February report on UFOs (or UAP, unidentified anomalous phenomena) said.
"This program never recovered or reverse-engineered any UAP or extraterrestrial spacecraft. This IC (intelligence community) program was disestablished due to its lack of merit," according to the report.
But it doesn't say the cost of the project or how much was spent.
Rep. Tim Burchett in Washington, D.C. (Fox News Digital)
"If they (federal government) don't have anything to hide, they sure are doing a great job of hiding it," Burchett said with a smirk. "And also, if (UFOs) don't exist, why do they keep spending tens of millions of dollars researching? And why do they not declassify the documents?
"And also, if (UFOs) don't exist, why do they keep spending tens of millions of dollars researching? And why do they not declassify the documents?"
— Rep. Burchett
"And when they do declassify them, they're so redacted it just looks like blotches of blacked out ink."
A representative of AARO, All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, which is the Pentagon's office that studies UFOs, didn't immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Fox News Digital's Brooke Curto contributed to this report.
Chris Eberhart is a crime and US news reporter for Fox News Digital. Email tips to
