The Schumer's UAP Disclosure Act of 2023 is modeled after the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992?
I usually do not concern myself with the details of congressional bills and acts, but this matter concerns UAP and warrants further attention. Before you get too over excited about how fast transparency is moving on government UAP disclosure, please read on below.
The JFK Act was signed into law on October 26, 1992, by the first President Bush. Its main goal was to make information available to the public through the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) within 25 years of the law's enactment.
However, in 2017, President Trump signed an executive order allowing for the continued postponement of the release of certain documents due to national security concerns. The postponement period was extended until October 26, 2021.
Whoa, so what happened?
This was what President Trump exercised:
Exception for Records Requiring Continued Protection: The section acknowledges that some assassination records may contain information that would harm the military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or conduct of foreign relations of the United States. In such cases, Section 5 allows for the postponement of disclosure beyond the 25-year deadline if the President certifies that continued postponement is necessary for national security reasons.
There appears to be two different sets of language allowing for delay. One allows for an extension of the deadline and another for further reviews. Each
adds additional years to the disclosure.
This was what President Biden exercised but the Archivist recommended to the President further postponement of certain redacted information:
Review and Redaction: If the President determines that continued protection is necessary, Section 5 requires that the President, in consultation with the Archivist of the United States and other appropriate officials, review the records to identify and postpone the disclosure of specific information. This review process involves a careful examination of the records to balance the public's right to information with the need to protect sensitive national security interests.
Well, they tacked on 7 more years to disclose the JFK info. It took a good 32 years to get disclosure, but they're still holding back some redacted information. If the final version of the UAP Disclosure Act hadn't changed, we might've seen a similar delay, but it got cut down, making UAP disclosure seem trickier than JFK's. Looks like we'll be waiting even longer for UAP disclosure.
ADDENDUM:
There is some confusion as to exactly when the UAP disclosure will go into affect. Some think it is 25 years after creation of the record, making most of the records subject to immediate disclosure. No, it's 25 years after the enactment of the bill, the official documentation and release dates of the JFK records in National Archive website support this. The official release date, October 26, 2017, exactly coincided with the 25th anniversary of the passage of the JFK Act on October 26, 1992, down to the month and day. There is an earlier release on July 24, 2017, but that was due to some peripheral reasons.