Congress is revisiting UFOs: Here's what's happened since last hearing on extraterrestrials

More than a year has passed since elected leaders in Congress last heard from experts about mystifying objects outmaneuvering our military and claims of shadowy government programs to study alien spaceships.

The now-infamous congressional hearing was one filled with sensational claims about UFOs. Despite the government's rebranding of UFOs with a less-stigmatized acronym – unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP – the hearing still captivated a public long obsessed with ideas of flying saucers and little green men.

So, when military officers spent hours providing compelling testimony about not just strange craft whizzing unchecked through U.S. air space, but about a concerted effort of our government to capture and study those craft, the public was hooked.

The hearing served to reignite long-held public suspicions that the U.S. military and other high levels of government are suppressing information about extraterrestrial activity and galvanized a movement for transparency. Now that a little more than a year has gone by, the government has signaled that after years of secrecy, it's slowly coming around to the idea of sharing more information publicly.

But some lawmakers and advocates say it hasn't been enough. And now, they're on the verge of delving into the topic of UAP once again Wednesday.

Ahead of the next congressional hearing, here's what has happened since Congress' last foray into UFOs.

UFO hearing:US Congress hopes to 'pull back the curtain' on UFOs in latest hearing

Watch Wednesday's hearing

USA TODAY is providing a livestream of Wednesday hearing at the embed below:

July 2023: Military officials testify about UFOs at last congressional hearing

In the July 2023 hearing, House members heard testimony from two former Navy pilots who came forward with information about objects routinely violating U.S. airspace.

Lt. Ryan Graves and Cmdr. David Fravor each provided accounts of specific incidents they had either witnessed over the years or heard about from other pilots they deemed credible. Some of the accounts they described were of aircrafts displaying capabilities they believed were beyond any known human technology.

Fravor himself was among Navy pilots who spotted the now-famous Tic Tac-shaped object that was captured in 2004 on video during a flight off the coast of Southern California. In testifying about the well-known sighting, Fravor described the oval object as "perfectly white, smooth, no windows," and displaying flight capabilities that were unheard of.

But the most sensational part of the hearing came when former Pentagon intelligence official David Grusch offered testimony about an alleged shadowy "multi-decade" Pentagon program to retrieve and study not only downed spacecraft, but extraterrestrial pilots. Without offering hard evidence, Grusch accused the Pentagon under oath of being aware of extraterrestrial activity since the 1930s and hiding the program from Congress while misappropriating funds to operate it.

The Pentagon has repeatedly denied that such a program exists.

August 2023: Pentagon unveils UFO website with declassified info

Within about two months of the hearing, the Pentagon's office to investigate UFOs revealed a new website for the public to access declassified information about reported sightings.

The site, operated by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) – a relatively new Pentagon program established to analyze UAP reports – also has a mechanism for military pilots to report sightings.

More than a year after launching, the site includes a handful of videos, some of which have been explained as commercial craft and some of which have been labeled as "unresolved." Each video contains a short description with an explanation by AARO of where it was captured and what characteristics the object was exhibiting.

Those who visit the site can also access an assortment of laws, memos, congressional briefings and press releases related to UAP.

But if you're going to the site to look for evidence of aliens, you'll be disappointed. In January, outgoing AARO director Sean Kirkpatrick – since replaced by Jon T. Kosloski – appeared on a podcast and made one thing clear:

"There is no evidence of aliens and there's no evidence of the government conspiracy," he said.

September 2023: NASA releases UAP report, appoints research head

Weeks later, NASA released a long-awaited UFO report affirming that no evidence existed to confirm that alien spaceships have visited Earth.

However, in what Administrator Bill Nelson described as a signal of the agency's transparency, NASA appointed a director of UAP research.

Because of the potential threat posed to national security and air safety, NASA embarked in 2022 on the space agency's first-ever study of UFOs, For the report, experts commissioned by the the space agency outlined ways in which NASA can partner with the U.S. government and private commercial organizations to better study and understand unidentified flying objects.

Legislation aims to declassify records, make reporting easier

In the wake of the hearing, Congress has sought to take action in the form of bipartisan legislation to demystify UFOs for the public.

Last December, President Joe Biden signed into law a watered-down version of a bill seeking the release of the executive branch's UFO records, which was included in an annual defense policy bill.

However, lawmakers like Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) and many UFO transparency advocates derided the legislation as disappointment. While the measure directs the government to disclose to the public at least some records about UAP, it grants various agencies wide latitude in concealing certain information.

Did America get 'ripped off'?UFO disclosure bill derided for lack of transparency

Then, under a House bill introduced in January, commercial airline pilots who witness crafts flying through the skies in unexplainable ways would be able to report the UFO sightings to the federal government. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-California) and Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wisconsin) both sponsored the bill, which would create a mechanism for civilian pilots and other airline workers to report sightings to the the Federal Aviation Administration.

However, the bill appears to have since stagnated since its introduction.

Alien renaissance in pop culture

The fiery Congressional hearing served to reignite a public obsession with UFOs that first came to focus after the infamous 1947 Roswell incident.

In the past year, Netflix released a docuseries. Brands like MoonPie jumped on the bandwagon. And conspiracy theories flourished. Even the tourism bureau in Lexington, Kentucky, capitalized on the craze with a tongue-in-cheek marketing campaign to encourage extraterrestrials to vacation in the city.

The idea that, absent any immediate logical explanation, strange crafts sighted whizzing through our skies must surely be alien visitors seems to only continue gaining momentum – even as astrophysicists caution that the absence of obvious natural explanations for UFOs doesn't make extraterrestrial ones likely.

Some experts even see the UFO hoopla as "a widespread societal problem."

Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com