NPI Launches National Campaign to Protect UAP Disclosure in Defense Bill
WASHINGTON, D.C., October 19, 2026: The New Paradigm Institute (NPI) today launched a national call to action urging Congress to keep the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act (UAPDA) in the final FY2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the annual defense bill now being reconciled by House and Senate negotiators.
For the first time, a genuine UAP disclosure measure is part of the House-passed NDAA, the one bill Congress must pass every year. Representative Eric Burlison (R-MO) won its adoption on July 22, 2026, after months of procedural resistance. With the House and Senate now reconciling their versions of the bill behind closed doors, NPI warns that the measure can be weakened or quietly deleted in conference with no recorded vote and no public debate.
Modeled on the law that opened the John F. Kennedy assassination records, the UAPDA would gather the government’s UAP records into a collection at the National Archives, create a presumption that those records are released to the public unless the government can show specific harm, and establish an independent, Senate-confirmed review board with subpoena power to compel records and testimony. Critically, it would reach records held by defense contractors, so that information cannot be shielded inside private contracts.
NPI points to recent history as a warning. In 2023, Senators Chuck Schumer and Mike Rounds wrote a strong UAP Disclosure Act and passed it through the Senate as part of the defense bill. In conference, its core provisions, including the independent review board and the recovered-materials language, were stripped before the bill became law, leaving a narrow records provision and little real accountability.
“For the first time in roughly eighty years, a real disclosure law is one step from the finish line,” said Danny Sheehan, founder of the New Paradigm Institute. “But we have seen how this story can end. In 2023, the disclosure the public was promised was quietly dismantled in a room the people were not allowed to enter. We cannot allow that to happen a second time.”
House and Senate Armed Services and Intelligence Committee leadership are leading the final negotiations. NPI is asking the public to contact thirteen key offices, including congressional leadership and the chairs and ranking members of those committees, with a single message: keep Representative Burlison’s UAPDA in the final FY2027 NDAA, fully intact, with no provisions stripped.
The campaign asks supporters to take two actions that together take only a few minutes. First, supporters can send a pre-written email to all thirteen offices with one click. Second, NPI’s call tool connects supporters to those same offices with a short script to read aloud. Staff log constituent calls, which carry particular weight in the final days of negotiation.
“The only force that has ever beaten a closed door is an open, organized, and undeniable public voice,” Sheehan added. “That voice is the American people, and the next few weeks will decide whether they are heard.”
About the New Paradigm Institute
The New Paradigm Institute, a project of the Romero Institute, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit interfaith law and policy center, is dedicated to advocating for the public release of information held by the government surrounding the issue of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), or what has commonly been known as Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).
For more information, please visit newparadigminstitute.org.
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