The 2022 Gillibrand–Rubio UAP Amendment: A Data-first Explainer

In December 2022, Congress passed what is widely known as the Gillibrand–Rubio UAP amendment as part of the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). 

It embedded the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, or AARO, in law and ordered a set of concrete deliverables. Those included a secure whistleblower channel that pierces nondisclosure agreements, semiannual classified briefings and annual unclassified reports to Congress, a historical record review back to 1945, a science plan, and a requirement to notify congressional leaders within seventy two hours if the reporting channel reveals an unreported restricted program. 

Much of the amendment is now codified at 50 U.S.C. §§ 3373 and 3373b. (Legal Information Institute)

Since then, AARO has published annual UAP reporting, opened a protected submission portal for current or former government personnel and contractors, briefed Congress repeatedly, produced Volume 1 of a historical-record report, and posted case files along with imagery. The public law texts and official sites provide a rare, well lit paper trail in a subject long starved of documentation. (AARO)

How Washington codified modern UAP oversight

From task forces to a permanent office

Congress first sketched a modern UAP office in the FY2022 NDAA, then the Department of Defense stood up AARO in July 2022. The Pentagon’s establishment memo stated that creating AARO was a significant step toward domain awareness and transparency while protecting sensitive sources and methods. (U.S. Department of War)

What changed in December 2022

The FY2023 NDAA and the accompanying intelligence authorization provisions did several things that matter for researchers, witnesses, and policymakers:

• Anchored AARO in statute and set its reporting chain. The law directs the AARO Director to report to the Deputy Secretary of Defense and the Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, while handling administrative matters with the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security. (Legal Information Institute)
• Broadened the scope from aerial to anomalous. Congress replaced the earlier “unidentified aerial phenomena” wording with “unidentified anomalous phenomena,” and defined UAP to include airborne objects, transmedium objects that cross air, space, or water, and submerged objects with related performance signatures. (Legal Information Institute)
• Built a secure, protected reporting mechanism. 50 U.S.C. § 3373b requires the Secretary of Defense, through AARO and in consultation with the DNI, to create a secure reporting channel for events relating to UAP and for any government or contractor program touching UAP. The statute explicitly lists material retrieval, material analysis, reverse engineering, testing, and security as eligible topics. Reports shared through this mechanism are protected from nondisclosure agreements and retaliation. (Legal Information Institute)
• Pierced restrictive NDAs and set a seventy two hour rule. If an authorized disclosure appears to involve a restricted access or special access program that has not been explicitly and clearly reported to the defense and intelligence committees, the Secretary must notify those committees and congressional leaders within seventy two hours. The statute also directs a search for UAP-related nondisclosure orders and requires access for Congress. (Legal Information Institute)
• Mandated deliverables and timelines. Congress ordered semiannual classified briefings through December 31, 2026, and annual unclassified reports for four years. It also tasked a historical record report focused on 1945 to the present and required cooperation from the National Archives. (Legal Information Institute)
• Required a science plan. AARO must supervise a science plan to test theories that could account for performance characteristics beyond known state of the art, and advise on investments needed to replicate or understand such characteristics. (Legal Information Institute)
• Directed whole-of-government coordination. AARO is required to coordinate with FAA, NASA, DHS, NOAA, NSF, DOE, and to consult with allies and partners when appropriate. (Legal Information Institute)

These provisions live primarily at 50 U.S.C. § 3373 (AARO’s structure, duties, reporting, definitions) and § 3373b (secure reporting, nondisclosure provisions, and protections). The enrolled public law is Public Law 117-263. (Legal Information Institute)

What the amendment has produced so far

Annual reporting and the size of the dataset

• In January 2023, the intelligence community published the unclassified 2022 Annual Report on UAP, stating 510 total reports as of August 30, 2022. This combined 144 earlier cases with 366 new reports. (Director of National Intelligence)
• In October 2023, the FY2023 Consolidated Annual Report on UAP reported 291 additional submissions between August 31, 2022 and April 30, 2023, bringing AARO’s holdings to 801 reports at that time. The report characterized most cases as ordinary once sufficient data is obtained and noted no confirmed adverse health effects. (AARO)
• In 2024, AARO released Volume 1 of the Historical Record Report required by Congress. The report stated that AARO found no empirical evidence that the government has confirmed extraterrestrial technology in its historical reviews. News coverage emphasized that conclusion while noting another volume would follow. (U.S. Department of War)

A protected reporting channel and practical instructions

AARO implemented the secure reporting requirement with an online Submit a Report portal. At present, it accepts reports from current or former U.S. government employees, service members, or contractors with direct knowledge of government programs or activities related to UAP, dating back to 1945. The site includes a report form and a user guide. The Department of Defense announced the launch in October 2023. (AARO)

Hearings and oversight

The law assigned routine oversight to Congress. That has played out in several venues:

• Senate Armed Services Subcommittee hearing on AARO on April 19, 2023, chaired by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, with AARO Director Sean M. Kirkpatrick as witness. The committee posted the transcript and materials. (Armed Services Committee)
• House Oversight hearing on UAP on July 26, 2023, featuring testimony by David Grusch, Ryan Graves, and David Fravor. The committee and the Office of the Clerk have posted the transcript and record of the hearing. (Congress.gov)
• AARO congressional and press products page centralizes the official reports, transcripts, and presentations, making it easier to track required deliverables. (AARO)

Leadership and institutionalization

The Department of Defense designated physicist Sean M. Kirkpatrick as AARO’s first director. 

In August 2024, DoD announced Dr. Jon T. Kosloski as the new director, and he provided an updated statement for the Senate subcommittee later that year. These appointments matter because the amendment set AARO’s direct reporting line and tasked it with scientific and operational work that extends across several agencies. (U.S. Department of War)

Public facing records and case releases

AARO’s website now includes official UAP imagery, case resolution summaries, and visualized reporting trends, reflecting a shift toward standardized and publicly releasable outputs that Congress asked for. (AARO)

What the law actually says, in plain language

Below is a clause-by-clause translation of the two most important code sections.

50 U.S.C. § 3373 Establishment and duties of AARO

• Status and reporting. AARO’s Director reports operationally to the Deputy Secretary of Defense and the Principal Deputy DNI, and administratively within the intelligence and security enterprise. This embeds the office at a high level rather than as a transient task force. (Legal Information Institute)
• Core duties. Synchronize and standardize UAP data collection and analysis, enforce timely reporting, assess threats and adversary links, coordinate across FAA, NASA, DHS, NOAA, NSF, DOE, and consult allies and partners. (Legal Information Institute)
• Rapid response and field investigations. DoD and the DNI must designate officials and resources for rapid on-scene investigation of UAP incidents, with authority to draw in outside cleared expertise. (Legal Information Institute)
• Science plan. AARO must supervise a science plan to test theories that could account for characteristics beyond current state of the art, and to inform future investments. (Legal Information Institute)
• Historical record report. AARO must prepare a report to Congress that compiles and itemizes the government’s historical record on UAP back to January 1, 1945, including records, interviews, open source analysis, and any documented efforts to obscure information. (Legal Information Institute)
• Annual reports and semiannual briefings. An unclassified annual report is required for four years, with a classified annex as needed, and classified briefings twice a year through 2026. Required elements include counts of incidents in restricted airspace, assessments of nuclear associated UAP reporting, and updates on coordination with allies. (Legal Information Institute)
• Definitions. UAP includes airborne, transmedium, and submerged categories. Congress also defined transmedium objects as those observed transitioning between space, air, and bodies of water. (Legal Information Institute)

50 U.S.C. § 3373b Secure reporting and protections

• Who can report and what. The Secretary of Defense, acting through AARO, must provide a secure mechanism for reporting any UAP-related event and any government or contractor program relating to UAP. The examples named in the law include material retrieval and analysis, reverse engineering, detection and tracking, testing, and security protection. (Legal Information Institute)
• Piercing NDAs and protecting witnesses. Authorized disclosures to this channel are not restricted by nondisclosure agreements, are deemed compliant with classification rules when made through the mechanism, and are protected from retaliation. The Secretary and the DNI are required to set enforcement procedures. (Legal Information Institute)
• Seventy two hour notification. If the disclosure indicates an unreported restricted access or special access program, AARO must ensure that congressional defense and intelligence committees and congressional leadership are notified within seventy two hours. (Legal Information Institute)
• Searching for legacy nondisclosure orders. Departments, agencies, and contractors must search for UAP-related nondisclosure orders and provide copies to AARO, which must then make them accessible to the defense and intelligence committees and leadership, with recurring briefings through fiscal year 2026. (U.S. Code)

Known figures and their roles

• Senator Kirsten Gillibrand chaired the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, convened the April 19, 2023 AARO hearing, and has repeatedly pressed for full funding and implementation of the office’s mandate. (Armed Services Committee)
• Senator Marco Rubio served as Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee and partnered with Gillibrand on UAP provisions and funding support for the office. (Kirsten Gillibrand)
• Dr. Sean M. Kirkpatrick was AARO’s first director and testified at the April 19, 2023 hearing, describing the mission, caseload, and analytic approach. (Armed Services Committee)
• Dr. Jon T. Kosloski was appointed AARO director in August 2024, delivered a Senate statement in November 2024, and has overseen subsequent reporting. (U.S. Department of War)
• House witnesses David Grusch, Ryan Graves, and David Fravor placed competing claims on the record in July 2023, which in turn sharpened oversight and public debate. (Congress.gov)

Impact, measured

Reporting volume and standardization. The 2022 ODNI report placed total reports at 510 as of late August 2022. The FY2023 consolidated report added 291 more and put AARO’s total holdings at 801 by April 30, 2023. The same report detailed morphology distributions and geography, and emphasized that higher quality data tends to resolve more cases. (Director of National Intelligence)

Process transparency. AARO created a protected online reporting channel that implements the law’s secure mechanism, complete with a user guide and a publicly visible form. The Department of Defense announced the launch in October 2023. (AARO)

Historical review. AARO delivered Volume 1 of its congressionally mandated historical record report. The office stated it found no empirical evidence that any U.S. program confirmed extraterrestrial technology, a conclusion covered widely by major outlets. Congress required this product under the same 2022 statutory authority that broadened AARO. (U.S. Department of War)

Congressional oversight cycle. The pattern of semiannual classified briefings and annual unclassified reports is now institutionalized, with AARO’s congressional products posted centrally. (AARO)

Public-facing casework. Case resolution summaries and official imagery give outside researchers the minimum common dataset needed to test hypotheses about radar artifacts, parallax, balloons, birds, and other candidates. That is exactly what a data-first regime is supposed to produce. (AARO)

Controversies and tensions

Competing narratives. In July 2023, House witnesses alleged the existence of crash retrieval and reverse engineering programs, while AARO’s 2024 historical report said it found no empirical confirmation of extraterrestrial technology in government holdings. This is the core tension shaping public debate. (Congress.gov)

What counts as evidence. The secure reporting statute explicitly names material retrieval and reverse engineering as topics that can be disclosed to AARO. That legal phrasing neither confirms nor denies such programs; it simply creates a channel for reporting and requires rapid congressional notification if undisclosed restricted programs are indicated. (Legal Information Institute)

Transparency versus classification. The amendment demands unclassified annual reports, but many sensor systems and operational contexts remain classified. AARO has published declassified case materials and a declassification explainer, but the friction is structural and will likely persist. (AARO)

Definitions and scope. The shift from aerial to anomalous broadened the aperture to include transmedium and submerged categories. That answered years of complaints that legacy definitions could not capture cross-domain objects, but it also widened the target set for analysis, which can dilute scarce resources if not prioritized carefully. (Legal Information Institute)

Implications

For current and former government personnel and contractors. The law removed key disincentives by protecting authorized disclosures from nondisclosure agreements and retaliation, and it created a clearly advertised reporting portal. 

If an undisclosed restricted program is implicated, Congress must be notified within seventy two hours. That is an unprecedented accountability hook for this topic. (Legal Information Institute)

For agencies and archives. The historical record directive forced a sweep of records, including cooperation from the National Archives. It also mandated that departments search for UAP-related nondisclosure orders and provide them to AARO for congressional access. 

This brings paper trails into view that had been dispersed across agencies and contractors. (Legal Information Institute)

For science and industry. The science plan and reporting requirements move UAP from ad hoc anecdotes to structured datasets. That invites independent replication and statistical work by academia and private sector partners in radar processing, EO and IR imaging, and AI-assisted attribution. (Legal Information Institute)

For allies and civil aviation. The statute’s explicit coordination with FAA and NASA, plus allied consultation, should gradually converge reporting schemas internationally and in the commercial sector. That will help separate new adversary capabilities, air safety issues, and truly anomalous cases. (Legal Information Institute)

Data points at a glance

• AARO holdings as of April 30, 2023: 801 reports. Period covered new submissions: 291. (AARO)
• Total reports as of Aug. 30, 2022: 510. (Director of National Intelligence)
• Required cadence: annual unclassified reports for four years, plus semiannual classified briefings through Dec. 31, 2026. (Legal Information Institute)
• Historical scope: 1945 to present. (Legal Information Institute)
• Seventy two hour congressional notification if an undisclosed restricted program is implicated via the secure channel. (Legal Information Institute)

Where the debate runs hottest

Flight safety and national security. Even in reports that resolve to balloons or birds, proximity to restricted airspace or critical infrastructure sustains Congressional attention. The statute requires explicit reporting on incidents near nuclear assets and Nuclear Regulatory Commission-regulated sites, plus ally coordination updates. (Legal Information Institute)

Historical claims versus contemporary analysis. The historical report’s first volume found no empirical evidence of extraterrestrial technology, yet witnesses have alleged the opposite. This gap fuels media cycles and legislative proposals aimed at accelerated declassification. (Reuters)

The culture shift. The law’s protected channel and anti-reprisal language are changing incentives. It is now procedurally safer for insiders to report UAP-related programs or events, with direct congressional visibility built into the mechanism. That is an unusual degree of statutory sunlight for a topic long handled in shadows. (Legal Information Institute)

Bottom line

The Gillibrand–Rubio UAP amendment did not answer the big question. It did something more durable. It is a hard-wired process. Congress broadened definitions to match cross-domain observations, created a secure witness channel with legal protections, pulled the office up the chain of command, forced a historical review, and tied it all to recurring, measurable outputs that are now visible enough for outside scrutiny. 

Whether the ultimate remainder proves adversarial, prosaic, or truly anomalous, this legal scaffolding is the foundation the United States has not had before.

References

Public Law 117-263, FY2023 National Defense Authorization Act, including Section 1673 on UAP reporting procedures. (Congress.gov)

50 U.S.C. § 3373, Establishment of the All domain Anomaly Resolution Office, duties, reporting, definitions. (Legal Information Institute)

50 U.S.C. § 3373b, UAP reporting procedures, whistleblower protections, NDA provisions, seventy two hour notification. (Legal Information Institute)

DoD memo announcing the establishment of AARO, July 20, 2022. (U.S. Department of War)

ODNI, 2022 Annual Report on UAP. (Director of National Intelligence)

AARO and ODNI, FY2023 Consolidated Annual Report on UAP. (AARO)

AARO, Historical Record Report, Volume 1; contemporaneous coverage. (U.S. Department of War)

AARO, Congressional and Press Products index. (AARO)

AARO, Submit a Report page, form, and user guide. (AARO)

Senate Armed Services, AARO hearing transcript, April 19, 2023. (Armed Services Committee)

U.S. House Oversight, UAP hearing transcript, July 26, 2023. (Congress.gov)

AARO, Official UAP Imagery and Case Resolution Reports. (AARO)

DoD press release, AARO Director Jon T. Kosloski. (U.S. Department of War)

Verified

• AARO’s statutory structure, reporting chain, duties, science plan, annual report and semiannual briefing requirements. (Legal Information Institute)
• The secure reporting mechanism, NDA piercing, anti-reprisal protections, and the seventy two hour congressional notification rule. (Legal Information Institute)
• Reported counts in the 2022 ODNI and 2023 AARO annual reports. (Director of National Intelligence)
• Launch of the online protected reporting portal. (U.S. Department of War)
• Publication of AARO’s historical record report Volume 1. (U.S. Department of War)

Probable

• The protected channel and clarified reporting guidance reduced stigma and increased reporting rates among military and civil aviation communities. The 2023 report’s trend analysis supports this reading. (AARO)

Disputed

• Assertions that the U.S. government possesses recovered nonhuman craft or biologics. AARO’s historical review reported no empirical confirmation; witnesses and some members of Congress allege otherwise. (Reuters)

Legend

• Cultural narratives about secret repositories and unbroken lines of crash retrieval since mid-century. The amendment treats these as claims to be tested via documented processes rather than as established facts.

Misidentification

• AARO’s public case releases include multiple instances resolved as balloons or migratory birds, demonstrating how technical artifacts and perception can mimic anomalies. (AARO)

Speculation labels

Hypothesis. The seventy two hour notification clause and the explicit inclusion of material retrieval and reverse engineering in the secure reporting statute suggest that Congress anticipated the possibility that undisclosed restricted programs might exist. The clause is a tripwire for immediate oversight if credible authorized disclosures point that way. This is an inference from the text and timelines, not proof that such programs exist. (Legal Information Institute)

Witness interpretation. House testimony in July 2023 interpreted government actions and rumors as evidence of multi decade crash retrieval and exploitation efforts. Those statements are on the record as witness claims; AARO’s historical review has not corroborated them. (Congress.gov)

Researcher opinion. From a policy design perspective, the amendment’s science plan and data standardization are the most important long-term features. They create a repeatable pipeline where ambiguous cases move toward explanation, and the remainder can be isolated for deeper study without stigma. That architecture is the clearest path to progress whether the final explanations are prosaic, adversarial, or truly anomalous. (Legal Information Institute)

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