Is intelligent alien life darting around in space — and even in the skies above us here on Earth? Has the U.S. government been covering up unexplained phenomena, and using secret extraterrestrial discoveries to boost its own technology?

Those are among the questions members of Congress are discussing on Wednesday in a joint hearing by subcommittees of the House Oversight Committee. Its title: “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth.”

Four experts are slated to testify in the public hearing, which began at 11:30 a.m. ET. You can watch the proceeding live.

The Pentagon issued a report in March saying that it has found no evidence of extraterrestrial spacecraft.

Extraordinary moments unfolded in a similar hearing last year, most notably when retired Maj. David Grusch, formerly part of the Pentagon’s UAP Task Force, alleged that the U.S. government has recovered nonhuman “biologics” from crash sites and has long operated a secret reverse-engineering program to glean advances from recovered vessels.

Grusch isn’t among the witnesses for the 2024 hearing. Instead, those testifying include:

Tim Gallaudet, retired rear admiral, U.S. Navy; CEO of Ocean STL Consulting, LLC

“Confirmation that UAPs are interacting with humanity came for me in January 2015,” Gallaudet said in his written testimony.

He describes being part of a pre-deployment naval exercise off the U.S. East Coast that culminated in the famous “Go Fast” video, in which a Navy F/A-18 jet’s sensors recorded “an unidentified object exhibiting flight and structural characteristics unlike anything in our arsenal.”

He was among a group of commanders involved in the exercise who received an email containing the video, which was sent by the operations officer of Fleet Forces Command, Gallaudet said.

“The very next day, the email disappeared from my account and those of the other recipients without explanation,” he said.

Luis Elizondo, author and former Department of Defense official

Elizondo’s testimony is brief and sure to raise scrutiny, alleging that a secretive arms race is playing out on the global stage.

“Let me be clear: UAP are real,” he writes. “Advanced technologies not made by our Government — or any other government — are monitoring sensitive military installations around the globe. Furthermore, the U.S. is in possession of UAP technologies, as are some of our adversaries.”

Elizondo is a former intelligence officer who later “managed a highly sensitive Special Access Program on behalf of the White House and the National Security Council,” according to his official bio.

“By 2012, [Elizondo] was the senior ranking person of the DOD’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, a secretive Pentagon unit that studied unidentified anomalous phenomena,” his bio states, adding that he resigned in 2017.

Michael Gold, former NASA associate administrator of space policy and partnerships; member of NASA UAP Independent Study Team

Gold’s testimony stresses the need for government agencies and academics to “overcome the pernicious stigma that continues to impede scientific dialogue and open discussions” about unexplained phenomena.

“As the saying goes, the truth is out there,” Gold said, “we just need to be bold enough and brave enough to face it.”

Michael Shellenberger, founder of Public, a news outlet on the Substack platform

Shellenberger’s testimony runs to some 214 pages, including a lengthy timeline of UAP reports from 1947 to 2023.

Shellenberger presses the White House and Congress to act, calling for the adoption of UAP transparency legislation and cutting funds for any related programs that aren’t disclosed to lawmakers.

“UAP transparency is bi-partisan and critical to our national security,” his written testimony states.

Reports of UFOs and UAPs are now more centralized

In 1977, President Carter asked NASA to look into resuming UFO investigations, but the agency and the Air Force believed “nothing would be gained by further investigation.”

But in recent years, there have been increased efforts to compile and centralize the reporting of unexplained phenomena.

In July 2022, the U.S. government established the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, or AARO, to standardize reporting methods and data collection. It collects UAP reports from the military and from the Federal Aviation Administration including sightings reported by civilian pilots to air traffic control. The agency doesn’t offer a way for the general public to file a UAP report. It does accept “reports from current or former U.S. Government employees, service members, or contractor personnel with direct knowledge of U.S. Government programs or activities related to UAP dating back to 1945.”

The agency adds that potential filers should not submit “any information that is potentially CLASSIFIED, or unclassified information that is not publicly releasable (e.g. subject to export control regulations).”

Many historical records are also available

Because of intense public interest, a number of records related to UFO studies are available online, including a “case files” folder related to UAPs on the U.S. Navy’s website. The FBI also has an online “vault” of records, covering the period from 1947 to 1954.

As for the famous Project Blue Book run by the U.S. Air Force from 1947 through 1969, documents related to the project are now kept by the National Archives, which holds 37 cubic feet of case files, along with at least 5 other cubic feet of records.

The bulk of the Blue Book investigations into 12,618 reported sightings were resolved, or explained, — but 701 remained “Unidentified,” the Air Force has said. The service said that none of the incidents constituted a security threat or indicated abilities beyond modern science. It added, “There was no evidence indicating that sightings categorized as ‘unidentified’ were extraterrestrial vehicles.”

Ahead of the ribbon-cutting at the Port of Chancay — a Chinese-built megaport on Peru’s Pacific coast that is set to transform regional trade — Chinese-made ZPMC unmanned cranes line the quay.

BYD pick-up trucks sit ready to shuttle engineers around, while Huawei 5G internet towers have been freshly constructed to handle the automated operation.

“Everything is made in China,” said a beaming Mario de las Casas, public affairs manager of the port for Cosco Shipping, the Chinese state-owned shipping giant that will operate Chancay once it opens on Thursday. “This is a huge opportunity not just for Peru but for the whole region,” he added, as Peruvian and Chinese flags flapped from street lights.

Peruvian officials argue the port, built by Cosco with local miner Volcan, will transform Peru — a big producer of copper and fruit — into the Singapore of South America, and will upend maritime trade along the continent’s Pacific coast as it can accommodate larger vessels in its deep waters.

But analysts and officials raised concerns that the $3.6bn project, which follows a series of other Chinese infrastructure investments, in effect represents a ceding of Peruvian sovereignty over the port.

The US, for whom growing Chinese influence in Latin America presents a strategic problem, has warned the port could be used by Chinese warships. And the development may present an area of contention with US president-elect Donald Trump as he takes a tougher line against China.

“The risks to Peru are at multiple levels,” said Evan Ellis, professor of Latin American studies at the US Army War College. “Risk number one is the country not reaping the benefits of its abundant resources and geographic position, but rather the Chinese getting those benefits.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping, in Peru this week to attend the Apec summit ahead of a state visit, will appear with Peruvian President Dina Boluarte at Chancay’s inauguration on Thursday via video link from Lima, 80km away. US President Joe Biden will also be in town for the Apec summit on his first and last visit to South America as president — with little to offer.

In May, amid a dispute with Cosco, Peruvian lawmakers passed legislation granting it exclusive rights to operate Chancay, something Ellis said was “previously unthinkable and against the very essence of Peru’s assertion of sovereignty over its own ports, which are its window to the world”.

Peru’s transport minister Raúl Pérez-Reyes shrugged off those concerns, arguing that Chancay will be overseen by Peru’s customs and port authorities.

“In this case it is an investment of Chinese capital, but it is exactly the same as if it were British or North American capital . . . in no case is our sovereignty lost,” Pérez-Reyes said.

He said the port would allow Peru’s booming agricultural sector to keep growing. “What Chancay will do is redirect a portion of cargo and send it directly to Asia.”

Of the $3.6bn cost of construction, $1.3bn had been invested in the initial phase, Cosco said. The deepwater port can berth some of the world’s largest shipping vessels, with a capacity of 22,000 twenty-foot equivalent units, or TEUs, an industry standard for containers. No other port on the Pacific coast of South America can take ships of this size.

Chancay will shave at least 10 days off what was previously a 35-day voyage to China from Peru, meaning vessels will no longer require a stopover at Mexico’s Manzanilla port or California’s Long Beach.

Brazilian cargoes, which sometimes travel eastbound to Asia or via the Panama Canal, will also save at least 10 days of travel time, Cosco said.

A cabotage law passed in May will allow cargo to move between Peruvian ports before coming on land, saving time spent on roads. Cosco has said small vessels from Ecuador, Chile and Colombia would be able to ship goods to Peru’s other ports. These goods would then be moved to and exported from Chancay.

Brazil is also set to benefit, Pérez-Reyes said, by using the Southern Interoceanic Highway, which passes through Brazil’s agricultural hubs of Acre and Rondônia before reaching Peru’s Pacific coast.

Chancay, part of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, adds to a portfolio of Chinese investments that includes Peru’s largest copper mine, Las Bambas, owned by MMG, a Chinese miner. 

In April 2023, China Southern Power Grid acquired Enel’s Peruvian electricity business, which supplies power to the northern part of Lima, the country’s capital. The rest of Lima’s electricity supply was sold in 2020 to China’s Three Gorges Corporation, which also owns a Peruvian hydroelectric dam.

Peru in March awarded a concession to build and operate a port in the south to a subsidiary of Chinese company Jinzhao, which runs an iron ore mine near Ica.

By contrast, Peruvian trade minister Úrsula León said the US was missing an opportunity to invest. Beijing and Washington both have free trade agreements with Lima, with the former expected to strengthen its FTA during Xi’s visit.

China is Peru’s largest trade partner, with copper, iron and fishmeal making up the bulk of exports worth a total of $23.1bn in 2023. US-bound exports amounted to $9.1bn.

“There are some opportunities that [the US] is missing, so it’s important that they know a little more about our market,” León said.

León said the US “also has opportunities” to invest in megaprojects, including the planned southern port of Corío. “So we can’t generalise and say that Peru is practically becoming dependent on China,” she said.

The US had discussed Chancay with Peru, the US state department said, and raised “the importance of adequate oversight, security, regulation and fair competition for all key infrastructure projects”.

“We are not asking partners to choose between the United States and [China], but we are demonstrating the benefits of partnership” with the US, the official said.

China is now the biggest trading partner for South America and a major investor in critical minerals, transport and energy projects. Beijing insists its overseas projects aim for mutual benefit, an approach it contrasts with what it calls Washington’s pursuit of hegemony and geopolitical advantage.

Initially Chancay will be able to handle between 1mn and 1.5mn TEUs a year, as well as 6mn tonnes of loose cargo, before increasing that to 3.5mn TEUs a year. The Port of Callao, Peru’s main port, was expanded this year and has annual capacity of 3.7mn TEUs, said the transport ministry.

But Latin America’s port capacity lags well behind Asia, North America and Europe, which have multiple ports with a throughput of more than 10mn TEUs each.

To avoid congestion in the town of Chancay — until recently a sleepy fishing community visited by weekend tourists — Cosco built a 1,830 metre tunnel, Peru’s longest, for trucks to bypass the town. Residents have complained about noise from the port and what they say are threats to fish stocks and wetlands.

Cosco plans a business park beside the port, where China’s biggest electric vehicle maker BYD has expressed interest in opening an assembly plant.

Lawmakers are considering granting the premises exclusive tax breaks, though that has faced pushback over the advantage it would give Chancay over Callao, the state-owned but privately operated port 73km away.

“Investing in Chancay is already attractive enough without having to offer tax breaks,” said Adriana Tudela, an opposition congresswoman. “We are, in essence, creating a huge disadvantage for other ports.”

Before leaving her post as chief of US Southern Command, which covers Latin America and the Caribbean, General Laura Richardson warned Chancay could be used by the Chinese navy. “This is a playbook that we’ve seen play out in other places,” Richardson said.

Alfredo Thorne, a former finance minister who runs an economic consultancy, said while the Chinese investments benefit Peruvian exports, “they carry major political risks, including access to the US market”.

US president-elect Trump, Thorne said, might drag Peru into any spat with Beijing, as he is expected to pursue protectionist policies and take a hard line against China. Trump has proposed a 60 per cent tariff on Chinese goods.

Thorne said: “I don’t see what China’s interest would be in continuing to bet on Peru when it has to face down Trump.”

Additional reporting by Michael Stott in London