UNCLASSIFIED // PUBLIC RECORDPERSONNEL FILE
Chuck Schumer & Mike Rounds
U.S. Senators
Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, has served in the Senate since 1999. He was Majority Leader from 2021 to 2025 and became Minority Leader in January 2025. Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican, was the state’s governor from 2003 to 2011 and joined the Senate in 2015. He sits on the Armed Services and Intelligence committees.
On July 14, 2023, the two senators unveiled the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) Disclosure Act as an amendment to the annual defense bill, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Modeled on the JFK assassination records law, it would have created a UAP records collection at the National Archives, with a presumption of immediate disclosure and an independent review board.
It also proposed federal eminent domain over privately held ‘technologies of unknown origin’ and ‘biological evidence of non-human intelligence.’ Schumer said ‘the American public has a right to learn about technologies of unknown origins, non-human intelligence, and unexplainable phenomena.’ Rounds said the goal was ‘to assure credibility with regard to any investigation or record keeping’ of UAP materials.
The Senate passed the measure as part of its defense bill in July 2023, but House negotiators rejected the review board and the eminent-domain provision. The final FY2024 NDAA, signed on December 22, 2023, kept a narrower version (sections 1841–1843). It led the National Archives to create the UAP Records Collection, Record Group 615, which releases agency records on a rolling basis.
Schumer called it ‘beyond disappointing’ that the House refused to work with them on the bill’s key elements. ‘It is really an outrage the House didn’t work with us on adopting our proposal for a review board,’ he said. The senators filed the full act again in July 2024 and July 2025, but neither the FY2025 nor the FY2026 NDAA included it.
On June 24, 2026, Schumer and Rounds filed a ‘UAP Disclosure Act of 2026’ amendment to the Senate’s FY2027 defense bill. In July 2026 the House adopted a separate version from Representative Eric Burlison as part of its own FY2027 bill. As of September 2026, the Congressional Research Service reported that the FY2027 NDAA had not been enacted.
Chuck Schumer, official Senate photo, 2017. Photo: U.S. Senate Photographic Studio / Jeff McEvoy (cropped) · Public domain · source
Mike Rounds, official Senate portrait, 2015. Photo: United States Congress (cropped) · Public domain · source
