The Schumer-Rounds UAP Disclosure Act is officially dead for this legislative cycle, a hard reality that leaves the UAP disclosure community without the transparency they’ve been demanding for years. After much anticipation, the act failed to make it into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2025, despite a broad base of support among those who believe the government has been withholding critical information about UAPs from the public for decades. This blow hits particularly hard after months of buildup and expectation, only to see the legislation fall flat when it counted the most.

The decision to drop the UAP Disclosure Act from the NDAA, filed as Senate Amendment 3290 on September 19, 2024, is not just disappointing—it’s a signal that, once again, the political establishment has chosen to prioritize secrecy over transparency. The Reed-Wicker manager’s package, an 88-page behemoth filled with everything from judicial appointments to mining regulations, somehow found space for multiple unrelated amendments but excluded the UAPDA, which was arguably one of the most high-profile issues of the year.

For many, this omission is not just frustrating but a betrayal of the momentum that’s been building around UAP disclosure. In recent years, we’ve seen whistleblower accounts, leaked footage, and congressional hearings that pointed to a future where the government might finally come clean about what it knows regarding UAPs. The Schumer-Rounds act was supposed to be the vehicle that carried that momentum forward. Instead, it’s been cast aside, signaling that the establishment isn’t ready to let the public in on the truth just yet.

The act would have created a UAP Records Review Board, tasked with reviewing and declassifying UAP-related documents. This was supposed to be the next step in forcing the government to release the information it’s been sitting on for decades. Yet, when it came time to cement those intentions into law, the necessary political consensus wasn’t there. The UAPDA wasn’t prioritized, leaving us with more questions than answers about why, exactly, this crucial legislation was left on the cutting room floor.