{"type":"people","slug":"chuck-schumer","title":"Chuck Schumer","url":"https://disclosdex.com/people/chuck-schumer","description":"Senate Democratic leader who turned UAP records into a National Archives disclosure fight through NDAA amendments","date":"1950-11-23T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["Politician"],"updated":"2026-05-18T12:32:21.000Z","disclosureRating":4,"connectionCount":10,"content":{"markdown":"Charles Ellis \"Chuck\" Schumer is New York's senior U.S. senator, a Democrat from Brooklyn, and the Senate Democratic leader and Conference chairman.[^1][^2] In 2023, he became the lead Senate sponsor of a records-disclosure framework that treated unidentified anomalous phenomena as a federal archive, declassification, and oversight problem.[^4][^5]\n\n## Brooklyn to Senate Leadership\n\nSchumer was born and raised in Brooklyn, graduated from Harvard Law School in 1974, won a New York State Assembly seat after law school, was elected to the U.S. House in 1980, and entered the U.S. Senate after the 1998 election.[^1] He became the first New Yorker to serve as leader of the Democratic Caucus in 2016 and later became the first New Yorker to serve as Senate Majority Leader in 2021.[^1] The Senate's 119th Congress committee roster lists him on Rules and Administration, the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies for 2024, and the Select Committee on Intelligence.[^3]\n\n## Harry Reid's Legacy and the July 2023 Opening\n\nOn July 14, 2023, the Senate Democratic Caucus announced that Schumer and Senator [Mike Rounds](/people/mike-rounds) were leading the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act of 2023 as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act.[^4] The release named a bipartisan Senate network around the effort: Rounds as ranking member of the Armed Services cybersecurity subcommittee, [Marco Rubio](/people/marco-rubio) as vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee, [Kirsten Gillibrand](/people/kirsten-gillibrand) as chairwoman of the Armed Services emerging threats subcommittee, plus Todd Young and Martin Heinrich.[^4] Schumer said he was carrying on the legacy of his mentor [Harry Reid](/people/harry-reid) and argued that the public should learn what the government had previously found about technologies of unknown origin, non-human intelligence, and unexplained phenomena.[^4]\n\n## Inside S.Amdt. 797\n\nSchumer submitted S.Amdt. 797 on July 13, 2023, for himself, Rounds, Rubio, Gillibrand, Young, and Heinrich as an amendment to the Senate's FY2024 NDAA vehicle.[^5] The amendment said federal UAP records should be preserved and centralized, should carry a presumption of immediate disclosure, and needed an enforceable process because FOIA and existing classification review had not produced timely disclosure.[^5] It framed UAP as a records ecosystem involving federal offices, possible private holders, scientific research, and national-security review.[^5]\n\nThe proposed bill would have created a UAP Records Collection at the National Archives, a presidentially appointed review board, a controlled disclosure process, and federal eminent domain over recovered technologies of unknown origin or biological evidence of non-human intelligence if such material was controlled by private persons or entities.[^4][^5]\n\n## Sections 1841-1843\n\nIn a December 13, 2023 Senate floor colloquy, Schumer said the NDAA would pass only portions of the UAP Disclosure Act and that the House had refused to include \"all the important elements\" during conference.[^6] He identified the surviving win as the first legal mandate for the National Archives to gather UAP records across the federal government, while Rounds identified the missing pieces as an independent government-wide review board and a requirement to obtain recovered UAP material or biological remains that might have been provided to private entities.[^6]\n\nThe enacted FY2024 NDAA, Public Law 118-31, retained sections 1841-1843 on UAP records.[^7][^8] Section 1841 required the National Archives and Records Administration to establish an Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Records Collection, section 1842 required federal offices to identify and organize UAP records for transmission to NARA, and section 1843 allowed postponement of disclosure when an original classification authority found clear and convincing evidence of qualifying national-security, privacy, or confidentiality harms.[^7] The enacted subtitle did not include the proposed review board, controlled disclosure campaign, or eminent-domain authority Schumer and Rounds had described in the original amendment.[^5][^6][^7]\n\n## The 2024 Reattempt\n\nThe July 11, 2024 Congressional Record shows Rounds submitting S.Amdt. 2610 for himself and Schumer, titled the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act of 2024, as another NDAA amendment that again contained review-board machinery.[^9]\n\n## NARA Rollout\n\nPublic Law 118-31 required each federal agency, by October 20, 2024, to review, identify, and organize each UAP record in its custody for public disclosure and transmission to the National Archives.[^8] NARA's Record Group 615 holds UAP records transmitted from federal agencies and is updated as additional agency records arrive.[^11]\n\n## AARO's Counter-Record\n\n[AARO](/organizations/all-domain-anomaly-resolution-office)'s 2024 Historical Record Report stated that AARO found no evidence that any U.S. government investigation, academic-sponsored research, or official review panel had confirmed that any UAP sighting represented extraterrestrial technology.[^10] The same report said AARO found no verifiable evidence that the U.S. government or private industry had access to extraterrestrial technology, while Schumer's December 2023 floor statement separately said congressional offices had been notified by credible sources that UAP information had been withheld from Congress \"if true.\"[^6][^10]\n\n## References\n\n[^1]: [The Senate Democratic Caucus: About Chuck](https://www.democrats.senate.gov/about-chuck)\n[^2]: [U.S. Senate: States in the Senate - New York](https://www.senate.gov/states/NY/intro.htm)\n[^3]: [U.S. Senate: Committee Assignments of the 119th Congress](https://www.senate.gov/general/committee_assignments/assignments.htm)\n[^4]: [The Senate Democratic Caucus: Schumer, Rounds Introduce New Legislation To Declassify Government Records Related To UAPs and UFOs](https://www.democrats.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/schumer-rounds-introduce-new-legislation-to-declassify-government-records-related-to-unidentified-anomalous-phenomena-and-ufos_modeled-after-jfk-assassination-records-collection-act--as-an-amendment-to-ndaa)\n[^5]: [Congress.gov: S.Amdt. 797 to S.2226, 118th Congress](https://www.congress.gov/amendment/118th-congress/senate-amendment/797/text)\n[^6]: [The Senate Democratic Caucus: Schumer and Rounds Floor Colloquy on UAP Provisions in the NDAA](https://www.democrats.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/majority-leader-schumer-and-republican-senator-mike-rounds-floor-colloquy-on-unidentified-anomalous-phenomena-provisions-in-the-ndaa-and-future-legislation-on-uaps)\n[^7]: [Congress.gov: H.R. 2670, National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024, enrolled text](https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/2670/text/enr)\n[^8]: [National Archives: Guidance to Federal Agencies on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Records Collection](https://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/uap-guidance)\n[^9]: [GovInfo: Congressional Record, July 11, 2024, S.Amdt. 2610](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CREC-2024-07-11/pdf/CREC-2024-07-11-pt1-PgS4943.pdf)\n[^10]: [AARO: Historical Record Report, Volume 1](https://media.defense.gov/2024/Mar/08/2003409233/-1/-1/0/AARO_Historical_Record_Report_Vol_1_2024.pdf)\n[^11]: [National Archives: Record Group 615, Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Records Collection](https://www.archives.gov/research/topics/uaps/rg-615)","readingTime":"5 min read"},"relatedRecords":[{"ref":{"type":"people","slug":"marco-rubio","title":"Marco Rubio","url":"https://disclosdex.com/people/marco-rubio"},"direction":"mutual","weight":2},{"ref":{"type":"people","slug":"kirsten-gillibrand","title":"Kirsten Gillibrand","url":"https://disclosdex.com/people/kirsten-gillibrand"},"direction":"mutual","weight":2},{"ref":{"type":"people","slug":"mike-rounds","title":"Mike Rounds","url":"https://disclosdex.com/people/mike-rounds"},"direction":"mutual","weight":2},{"ref":{"type":"events","slug":"2024-ndaa-uap-records-collection","title":"2024 National Defense Authorization Act UAP Records Collection","url":"https://disclosdex.com/events/2024-ndaa-uap-records-collection"},"direction":"inbound","weight":1},{"ref":{"type":"organizations","slug":"all-domain-anomaly-resolution-office","title":"All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office 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