Sponsors (5)
The bill seeks to increase UAP reporting and preserve/share aviation data to improve safety and national-security coordination, while trading off added taxpayer and industry costs and heightened privacy/operational-security and enforcement-accountability concerns.
Pilots, air traffic controllers, flight attendants, and maintenance personnel will have standardized, stigma-reducing means to report unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), which should increase incident reporting rates and surface more safety-relevant information.
Archived communications, radar, and ATC data will be preserved for timely investigations, enabling better aviation safety analysis and post-incident review for pilots and controllers.
Reports and archived data will be shared with the Department of Defense's All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office, improving interagency coordination and responses to potential national-security threats.
Pilots, aircrew, and airlines may face privacy and operational-security risks because collecting, archiving, and sharing large volumes of flight and ATC data increases exposure of sensitive operational information.
The prohibition on using reports for enforcement (except for accidents/crimes) could limit the FAA's ability to act on misconduct revealed through reports, potentially reducing accountability.
Implementing new reporting systems, archiving capabilities, and interagency coordination will impose administrative and IT costs on the FAA funded by taxpayers.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Directs the FAA to create a UAP reporting/investigation program with standardized procedures, a reporting system, data archiving, interagency sharing with DoD AARO, and protections for reporters.
Introduced September 9, 2025 by Robert Garcia · Last progress September 9, 2025
Requires the FAA to set up a formal program to collect, report, analyze, investigate, and coordinate information about incidents that may be caused by unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) affecting aviation. The FAA must adopt standardized procedures, select or build a reporting system, archive communications and radar/ATC data for timely investigation, enable reporting via approved electronic flight bags when safe, and coordinate data sharing with federal partners including the Department of Defense All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office. The law also protects airmen and FAA employees who report UAP from enforcement and retaliation: reports cannot be used for enforcement (except for accidents or criminal acts), UAP spotting/reporting may not be considered in medical-certification or airman competency decisions, and federal supervisors and air carriers/operators are barred from retaliatory actions such as cease-and-desist letters. Deliverables and procedural updates are required within specific timeframes (initial items within 180 days, some updates within 1 year).