Thread by @ddeanjohnson

1/10) UAP CONGRESSIONAL NEWS: The U.S. Senate yesterday (July 23, 2020) passed the National Defense Authorization bill (NDAA), S. 4049, 86-14. Tucked inside it is the entire Intelligence Authorization bill (S. 3905) -- the bill to which

2/10) is attached the request of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) for a public report by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP). So for those interested in UAP, S. 4049 is now the bill to watch.

3/10) Be aware, however, that this combo Defense+Intelligence legislation is still a long way from enactment. It is unlikely that the legislation will be enacted prior to an anticipated post-election lame-duck session (so, November-December).

4/10) What happens now: Separate conference committees will meet on Defense and Intelligence components. There are many contentious issues to hammer out between Senate and House conferees, and with the White House. The Defense Authorization portion WILL ultimately become law--

5/10) at least, that has happened 60 years in a row -- but the Intelligence Authorization component may or may not make it. Even if the Intelligence Authorization component fails to reach enactment, the SSCI report language would stand as a formal expression of the will

6/10) of the SSCI. If the Intel part IS enacted, without pertinent change, then the SSCI report text will be an expression of "the will of Congress." (But NOT a law. There could be additional UAP-related language in the bill's "classified annex," but if so, we will never see it.)

7/10) Now, keep in mind: Congress often directs (in report language or actual law) various executive branch entities to produce reports on one thing or another. But the Executive Branch entities not infrequently comply in minimal ways, and sometimes not at all.

8/10) In other words, whatever exactly happens with the Intelligence Authorization bill, most important will be the degree to which key senators invest in insisting on a serious report from DNI, and on the spirit in which the congressional directive is carried out by key players

9/10) within the Executive Branch--including career people, senior political appointees (e.g., DNI), and even POTUS. It is possible, of course, that some of these players will change between now and the production of any DNI UAP report.

10/10) Note: The July 23 New York Times article misstates the SSCI report language on one point. The SSCI report requests one DNI report, within 180 days of enactment of the underlying bill -- not a public report "every six months."
#ufo
#NYTUFO

Note that the NY Times has now posted the following correction to the 7/23/20 story:

The New York Times has posted an updated and expanded correction to yesterday's UAP story. Here is the NYT correction as it appears at about 12:30 PM EDT. This revision corrects the error that I identified in tweet no. 10/10 of my original tweet-chain above.

1/2) Some folks have asked to see a page in the Congressional Record that "proves" that the Intelligence Authorization Act (IAA. S. 3905) passed the Senate. It was accomplished through an arcane procedure. Sen. Rubio filed an amendment that contained the entire text of the IAA;

this went into a "substitute amendment" that replaced the original text of the National Defense Authorization Act (S. 4049). Then the combo bill was passed. Above,the first page of the Rubio amt. Below,Senate Armed Services Cmte release that mentions the incorporation of the IAA.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the ranking minority member on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, responds (sort of) to some unheard questions about UAP. (From the Mystery Wire YouTube channel.)

More precisely:it's a classified annex to the SSCI committee report (not "the bill"). One portion of such a classified annex (the "schedule of authorizations") will have force of law if the bill is enacted,but the rest would be only an expression of the will of Congress--not law.

On July 23, the Senate passed a bill, to which is linked the Senate Intelligence Committee guidance to the Director of National Intelligence to prepare a public report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. It still has a long way to go, as I discuss here: