Tim Burchett is a Republican U.S. Representative for Tennessee's 2nd district, and Congress.gov lists his House service from the 116th through 119th Congresses beginning in 2019.1 The House Clerk's 119th Congress profile lists Burchett on the Committees on Foreign Affairs, Oversight and Government Reform, and Transportation and Infrastructure, including Oversight subcommittee assignments for Delivering on Government Efficiency and Government Operations.2
Burchett's public UAP record is congressional rather than firsthand: it consists of House hearing questions, an official caucus-and-letter campaign after David Grusch's 2023 testimony, UAP transparency and whistleblower bills, and continued questioning in the 2025 declassification task-force hearing.3456789
2023 House Hearing
At the July 26, 2023 House Oversight hearing "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency," the official hearing record named Ryan Graves, David Grusch, and retired Commander David Fravor as witnesses.3 Burchett questioned Fravor about the performance of the 2004 "Tic Tac" object, then questioned Grusch about alleged retaliation, alleged harm connected to cover-up efforts, access to a SCIF, special-access-program names, Title 10 and Title 50 oversight gaps, private corporations, taxpayer spending, and public reporting channels.3
The most important evidentiary feature of that exchange was its repeated split between public allegation and restricted evidence.3 Grusch said several answers could not be discussed publicly, said some information had been given to intelligence committees or the Inspector General, and said corporate and program details had been provided outside the open hearing rather than established in the public record.3
Caucus and ICIG Letter
On August 22, 2023, Burchett's office announced that he had launched an Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Caucus and had led Jared Moskowitz, Anna Paulina Luna, Nancy Mace, Eric Burlison, and Andy Ogles in a letter to Intelligence Community Inspector General Thomas Monheim about Grusch's hearing testimony.4 The release said the members sought follow-up information about people and facilities allegedly involved with UAP crash-retrieval and reverse-engineering programs after Grusch testified that specific details were classified.4
The underlying August 21, 2023 letter asked the ICIG which intelligence-community members, positions, facilities, military bases, or other actors were involved directly or indirectly in alleged UAP crash-retrieval programs and alleged UAP reverse-engineering programs.5 The letter requested answers by September 15, 2023, or classified access by September 26, 2023 if the requested information contained classified material.5
The letter was a concrete oversight action, but it did not itself verify the alleged programs it described.5 Its evidentiary value is that Burchett and the other signatories attempted to move Grusch's closed-session claims into an accountable congressional channel.35
2024 Exposing the Truth Hearing
At the November 13, 2024 joint Oversight hearing "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth," the official transcript listed Tim Gallaudet, Luis Elizondo, Michael Gold, and Michael Shellenberger as witnesses.6 The same transcript records Michael Gold thanking Burchett, Mace, Luna, and Robert Garcia for work on bipartisan UAP legislation, placing Burchett inside the legislative track surrounding the hearing.6
Burchett's questioning in that hearing focused on classification barriers, AARO, alleged deletion of a Fleet Forces Command email, submerged-object claims, and whether witnesses could identify programs or mechanisms in open session.6 Elizondo and Gallaudet repeatedly framed some answers as closed-session, speculative, or dependent on information outside the public record, so the hearing preserved Burchett's oversight questions without publicly proving the underlying claims.6
Transparency and Whistleblower Bills
Congress.gov records H.R.1187, the UAP Transparency Act, as introduced by Burchett on February 11, 2025 and referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.7 The bill text would require the President to direct federal agencies holding UAP-related documents, reports, or records to declassify them and make them available on public agency websites within 270 days of enactment, followed by a progress report to House and Senate oversight committees within 360 days and quarterly thereafter.7
Congress.gov records H.R.5060, the UAP Whistleblower Protection Act, as introduced by Burchett on August 29, 2025 for himself and Luna, with referral to Oversight and Government Reform, Armed Services, and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.8 The bill text would add disclosures about the use of federal taxpayer funds to evaluate or research UAP material to several whistleblower-protection channels covering federal civilian employees, the FBI, the Department of Defense, federal contractors, and the intelligence community.8
Both 2025 bills remained recorded by Congress.gov as introduced measures, so they are evidence of Burchett's legislative agenda rather than enacted disclosure law.78
2025 Task Force Hearing
The Government Publishing Office hearing print identifies "Restoring Public Trust Through UAP Transparency and Whistleblower Protection" as a September 9, 2025 hearing before the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.9 The print lists Burchett as a member of the task force, records him present, and names Jeffrey Nuccetelli, Alexandro Wiggins, George Knapp, Dylan Borland, and Joe Spielberger as witnesses.9
During his first questioning block, Burchett said he had recently introduced the UAP Whistleblower Protection Act and asked Knapp how Congress could further increase protections for federal personnel who disclose taxpayer-funded UAP work.9 The exchange then moved into Knapp's claims about private contractors, FOIA limits, Russian UAP files, alleged nuclear-site incidents, and alleged corporate custody of material, all of which remained witness claims inside the public hearing record.9
In a later questioning round, Burchett pressed Borland and Knapp on AARO's public position that it had found no evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity, or technology.9 Burchett closed by thanking the chair and ranking member for conducting the hearing in a bipartisan way, while other members urged action on Burchett's whistleblower bill and UAP disclosure legislation.9
Evidentiary Limits
AARO's February 2024 historical report said it reviewed official U.S. government UAP investigatory efforts since 1945, researched classified and unclassified archives, conducted approximately 30 interviews, and partnered with officials responsible for controlled and special-access program oversight.10 AARO reported that it found no evidence that any U.S. government investigation, academic-sponsored research, or official review panel had confirmed a UAP sighting as extraterrestrial technology, and it also reported no empirical evidence that the U.S. government or private companies had been reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology.10
That official finding conflicts with several witness claims and member suspicions aired in the hearings Burchett helped drive.36910 The strongest public claim about Burchett is therefore narrow: he made UAP transparency, whistleblower protection, contractor access, classified-program oversight, and public release of records recurring House issues, but the available public record does not independently establish nonhuman craft, recovered biologics, a confirmed crash-retrieval program, or a verified reverse-engineering program.345678910