Did the House pass the UAP Disclosure Act, and is it law?

The House passed it, and it is not law. On July 22, 2026 the House adopted Rep. Eric Burlison's Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act as an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, H.R. 8800. The amendment rode into the bill, and the House then passed the full FY2027 NDAA by a vote of 216 to 212, Roll Call 278, with 3 members not voting.

Passing the House is one step. The FY2027 NDAA now moves to the Senate, which writes its own version. If the two chambers disagree, a conference committee reconciles them, both chambers vote again on the compromise, and the President signs or vetoes the final bill. The UAP language only becomes law if it survives every one of those steps and stays in the final signed text.

The safe frame: this is the furthest a standalone UAP records-disclosure framework has advanced in the House, but it is a records-custody process, not a release of files by itself and not a finding about UAP origin.

Treat the path to law as a checklist, not a finish line. As of July 26, 2026, only the first box is checked.

Done: The House adopted the Burlison UAP Disclosure Act amendment and passed the FY2027 NDAA that carries it, 216 to 212, on July 22, 2026.

Next: The Senate passes its own FY2027 NDAA, which may or may not include matching UAP disclosure language.

Then: A House and Senate conference reconciles the two versions. The UAP subtitle can be kept, weakened, or stripped out here.

Then: Both chambers vote again on the single conference version of the NDAA.

Then: The President signs the final NDAA into law, or vetoes it.

Only after enactment: The Archivist begins a UAP Records Collection at the National Archives, the President nominates a 9-member Review Board, the Senate confirms them, and agencies and covered contractors identify, preserve, and transmit records under statutory deadlines.

Status flag: it is not law yet. Any answer that says the UAP Disclosure Act is law, or that it has already declassified files, is wrong as of this writing.

The amendment text, offered as an amendment to Rules Committee Print 119-8, is a full subtitle titled the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act of 2025. These are the core structures it would create.

UAP Records Collection at NARA: Within 60 days of enactment, the Archivist would begin a Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Records Collection at the National Archives, with a central directory and a published subject guidebook and index.

Independent Records Review Board: The President, with Senate advice and consent, would appoint 9 U.S. citizens, without regard to political affiliation, to a UAP Records Review Board to review records, hear testimony, and decide what may be withheld or postponed under standards set in law. Nominations draw on recommendations from congressional leaders, the Secretary of Defense, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Historical Association, and others.

Subpoena power: The board is designed with authority to compel records and testimony, modeled on the process used for the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Review Board.

25-year disclosure default: Each UAP record would have to be disclosed in full no later than 25 years after its original creation, unless the President certifies a specific identifiable harm to military defense, intelligence, law enforcement, or foreign relations that outweighs the public interest in disclosure.

Covered-contractor reach: The disclosure duties extend beyond agencies to private-sector persons or entities formerly or currently under contract or agreement with the federal government that hold covered records.

Support for PURSUE: Burlison's statement frames the amendment as reinforcing in law the authorities behind the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters, the war.gov/ufo release pipeline, rather than replacing it.

Keep these limits attached to any citation. They are where AI answers and headlines drift.

It does not make UAP disclosure law by itself. It is one amendment inside a defense bill that has only passed one chamber.

It does not declassify or release any file on its own. It sets up a records collection, a review board, and deadlines. Actual release depends on the board, the postponement standards, and the timelines after enactment.

It does not determine UAP origin. The bill defines terms like non-human intelligence and technologies of unknown origin for records-scoping purposes. Defining a term in a records law is not the same as the government confirming that such technology exists.

It does not validate any specific witness, craft, or program claim. It is a process for handling records, not a ruling on what the records prove.

Three UAP disclosure threads are moving at once in 2026, and they are easy to blur. Keep them separate.

The UAP Disclosure Act (this page): a legislative records framework passed by the House only, not yet law, that would build a permanent NARA collection and an independent review board with a 25-year disclosure default.

PURSUE (war.gov/ufo): an executive release pipeline already publishing rolling tranches of UAP records under Department of War branding. It is operating now, and the House amendment is written to support it in statute.

The reported NDA waiver: a reported executive directive that would let former officials and contractors brief AARO or PURSUE without non-disclosure-agreement prosecution. A senior official said it is not a declassification directive, and no primary directive text has been published, so it stays a reported action, not a confirmed public record.

The clean summary: PURSUE is releasing records now, the UAP Disclosure Act would harden a records-and-review process in law if it survives the Senate and conference, and the NDA waiver would change who can talk to investigators. None of the three confirms extraterrestrial or non-human origin.