Person
Kirsten Gillibrand
Also known as Gillibrand, Senator Gillibrand
- U.S. Senator (D-NY); Chair, SASC Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities
Kirsten Gillibrand has been a Democratic U.S. Senator from New York since 2009. As chair of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, she is the legislator most responsible for the Pentagon's standing UAP office. Her bipartisan amendment, enacted in the FY2022 NDAA, set up the office that became AARO, with a mandate to take witness reports regardless of non-disclosure agreements.
She chaired AARO's first open Senate hearing in April 2023 with director Sean Kirkpatrick. Opening it, she said the work begun by Harry Reid had revealed "strong evidence of advanced technology" encountered by military pilots for years. She called the government's response to unknown objects "irresponsibly anemic and slow" because of the UFO stigma, and pressed for raw sensor data to be retained rather than filtered out. Along with Schumer and Rounds she backed the UAP records provisions of the FY2024 NDAA.
In November 2024 she chaired a second hearing with Kirkpatrick's successor, Jon Kosloski, and asked AARO to publish what it could on unresolved cases such as Nimitz and Gimbal. She read AARO's historical report as evidence that the government had taken UAP seriously for 75 years, with half the cases in every decade unresolved, and called objects around nuclear sites deeply disturbing. She takes the security problem seriously without endorsing any conclusion about origin. She appears in The Age of Disclosure (2025).
Sources: April 19, 2023 Senate hearing (transcript) · November 19, 2024 Senate hearing · Senate press release · Wikipedia
Facts and claims
- documented Led the bipartisan legislative effort that created the Pentagon’s UAP office, which became AARO. Source: gillibrand.senate.gov (archived)
- claimed Secured language in the FY2024 NDAA requiring the government to declassify and release UAP files. Source: doc-uap-disclosure-act-2023.pdf
- documented Opening the April 2023 AARO hearing, she said the 2017 reports on work begun by Harry Reid showed “strong evidence of advanced technology” in objects observed by service members, and that for at least eight years military pilots had frequently encountered unknown objects in controlled airspace off both coasts and across the country. — Kirsten Gillibrand Source: Hearing transcript: AARO mission, activities, oversight and budget (Senate Armed Services, April 19, 2023)
- documented In the same statement she cited former Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist: had any of these objects been labelled “made in China” there would be an uproar; she said the response to the Chinese balloon showed that, “because of the UFO stigma the response has been irresponsibly anemic and slow.” — Kirsten Gillibrand Source: Hearing transcript: AARO mission, activities, oversight and budget (Senate Armed Services, April 19, 2023)
- claimed She said Congress had mandated AARO as an open door for witnesses to disclose what they know without fear of retribution for breaking non-disclosure agreements, and that DoD had adjusted radar filters during the February 2023 shoot-downs to detect such objects for the first time: “we cannot keep turning a blind eye to surveillance data.” — Kirsten Gillibrand Source: Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) Public Hearing - In Full - April 19, 2023 at 3:28
- claimed Introducing AARO director Jon Kosloski in November 2024, she asked the office to share what it could on the Nimitz incident, the Gimbal video and other unresolved cases, not only resolved ones, and urged people with first-hand knowledge of unreported programs to come forward. — Kirsten Gillibrand Source: Oversight Hearing on AARO and UAPs/UFOs Nov 19th 2024 (UnEdited) at 2:45
- claimed She read AARO's historical record report as showing that the government took sightings “extremely seriously” for 75 years, with about half the cases unresolved in every decade, rather than as a dismissal of the phenomenon. — Kirsten Gillibrand Source: Oversight Hearing on AARO and UAPs/UFOs Nov 19th 2024 (UnEdited) at 18:50
- claimed She called UAP around military bases and nuclear sites “deeply disturbing”, saying adversaries could at a minimum be using them to spy. — Kirsten Gillibrand Source: Oversight Hearing on AARO and UAPs/UFOs Nov 19th 2024 (UnEdited) at 20:30
Connected files
Events
- FY2024 NDAA UAP records provisions (backed) — Along with Schumer and Rounds, she backed its UAP records provisions
Documentaries
- The Age of Disclosure (appears in)
Hearings & briefings
- Senate Armed Services Subcommittee hearing on AARO (chaired)
- Senate Armed Services Subcommittee hearing with AARO Director (chaired)
Organizations
People
- Jon T. Kosloski (questioned) — His first public hearing was before Gillibrand's Senate subcommittee on 19 November 2024
- Sean Kirkpatrick (questioned) — She chaired AARO's first open Senate hearing with him in April 2023
- Harry Reid (credits) — She said the work begun by Reid revealed “strong evidence of advanced technology”
Incidents
- USS Nimitz “Tic Tac” encounter (asked about) — She asked AARO to publish what it could on unresolved cases such as Nimitz
Programs
- All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (legislated) — Her amendment in the FY2022 NDAA set up the office that became AARO
Documents
- AARO Historical Record Report, Volume 1 (commented on) — She read the report as showing the government took sightings “extremely seriously” for 75 years
Videos
- Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) Public Hearing - In Full - April 19, 2023 (speaks in)
- Oversight Hearing on AARO and UAPs/UFOs Nov 19th 2024 (UnEdited) (speaks in)
- Gillibrand and Col. Karl Nell: secrecy as a threat to democracy (The Age of Disclosure, clip) (appears in)
Mentioned in videos
Mentioned in documents and records
- Hearing transcript: AARO mission, activities, oversight and budget (Senate Armed Services, April 19, 2023)
- Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group