Prior to these hearings held in consecutive years, no open congressional hearings on the UFO phenomenon had been held since the days of Project Blue Book—a government study on UFOs that ran from 1952 to 1969.
Last year's congressional hearing gave lawmakers the opportunity to question the Pentagon regarding the issue of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP)—the current government nomenclature for UFOs—and for government officials to explain their current position and outline plans to investigate the issue further.