Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), along with a bipartisan group of five other senators, introduced extraordinary legislation on July 13, suggesting that the U.S. government or private contractors may secretly possess recovered UFOs and “biological evidence of living or deceased non-human intelligence.”

According to the legislation, “non-human intelligence” is defined as “any sentient intelligent non-human lifeform, regardless of nature or ultimate origin which may be presumed responsible for” UFOs.

Given the decades-long stigma associated with the UFO topic, such stunning language is not included in bipartisan congressional legislation on a mere whim, let alone proposed by the Senate’s top lawmaker.

According to a statement accompanying the legislation, the 2017 disclosure of a previously unknown government UFO analysis program spurred a broad congressional investigation of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), the government’s new terminology for UFOs.

The ongoing investigation “uncovered a vast web of individuals and groups” claiming knowledge of secret UAP-related programs and information.

According to Schumer, “the sheer number and variety” of UFO-related claims “led some in Congress to believe that the [U.S. government] was concealing important information regarding UAPs over broad periods of time.” Moreover, as noted in the legislation, “credible evidence and testimony indicates that Federal Government [UFO] records exist that have not been declassified” as required by law.

To that end, Schumer’s legislation establishes an independent nine-member agency to collect, review and declassify UAP records. If passed in its current form, the law would mandate that all government UFO documents “carry a presumption of immediate [public] disclosure.”

The proposed legislation follows explosive allegations by a former intelligence official, David Grusch, that secret UFO retrieval and reverse-engineering programs were illegally hidden from Congress. Importantly, the powerful investigative body that oversees the nation’s intelligence agencies found Grusch’s allegations to be “credible and urgent.” Moreover, the intelligence community’s first inspector general — appointed by President Obama, confirmed by the Senate and now a high-profile attorney in private practice — represented Grusch as he proceeded through the formal whistleblower process.

In an interview with NewsNation, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, corroborated the broad contours of both Grusch’s allegations and Schumer’s bipartisan legislation.

According to Rubio, only one of two remarkable outcomes will ultimately explain recent developments, “Either what [Grusch] is saying is partially true or entirely true, or we have some really smart, educated people with high clearances and very important positions in our government who are crazy and are leading us on a goose chase.”

“Most of these people,” Rubio continued, “have held very high clearances and high positions within our government. So, you ask yourself: ‘What incentive would so many people with that kind of qualification — these are serious people — have to come forward and make something up?’”

Asked about the specificity of the allegations, Rubio stated that individuals with “firsthand knowledge or firsthand claims” are “saying to us what you’ve seen out there in the public record, whether it’s about legacy [UFO] programs or about current events.”

Echoing Rubio’s comments and Schumer’s statement, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), who serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, stated recently that “all sorts of [UFO whistleblowers] are coming out of the woodwork” and telling Congress that “they’ve been part of this or that [UFO] program.”

According to Gallagher, last year’s enactment of UFO whistleblower protections resulted in “a variety of pretty intense conversations.”

Rubio and Gallagher’s remarkable comments bolster two reports, citing multiple military, intelligence and private sector officials, that defense contractors possess multiple craft of “non-human” origin.

While legislation introduced in June would cut off funding for any secret UFO retrieval and reverse-engineering programs, Sen. Schumer’s proposal goes even further. A provision in the new amendment declares that “any and all recovered [UFOs] and biological evidence of non-human intelligence that may be controlled by private persons or entities” shall be transferred to the U.S. government “in the interests of the public good.”

Moreover, to ensure the eventual release of all government UFO documents and information, the new legislation requires a “Controlled Disclosure Campaign Plan.” In short, if the proposed nine-member review board deems any UAP documents too sensitive to release immediately, such records would be subject to a “benchmark-driven plan” with recommendations for the “exact time” that they “may be appropriately disclosed to the public.”

Following a recommendation from the review board, the legislation establishes the president as the “sole and nondelegable authority to disclose” UFO-related records to the public.

Given this elevation of authority directly to the president, it is likely that the Schumer-led Senate coordinated or consulted with the Biden White House before proposing such extraordinary legislation.

Fortunately, the public may not have to wait for the new legislation to become law to learn more about what the U.S. government knows about UAP. According to Reps. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) and Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), the House Oversight Committee will hold a hearing July 26 featuring roughly half a dozen “superstar” witnesses who served in both Democratic and Republican administrations.

As Schumer rightly said, “the American public has a right to learn about technologies of unknown origins, non-human intelligence, and unexplainable phenomena.” Hopefully, the extraordinary legislation enacted and proposed in recent years, in tandem with open congressional hearings, will get to the bottom of the decades-long UFO mystery.

Marik von Rennenkampff served as an analyst with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, as well as an Obama administration appointee at the U.S. Department of Defense.