Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., told Newsmax on Monday that the House Oversight Committee's upcoming hearing on unidentified aerial phenomena aims to "get the truth out there" about UFOs.
Burchett told NBC News last week that the panel will hold a hearing on UFO sometime "towards the end of the month."
The congressman told "National Report" on Monday that the committee is "going to bring in some expert witnesses" to testify.
"They're professional people," he added, noting that some witnesses are military pilots and "not just ... some random person that comes off the street."
"I think the thing we've got to focus on is just transparency. I know the Pentagon is probably watching the opinion polls and noticing that over 55% of the population believes that we're not alone. So they realized that they are basically unchecked in their spending and their ability to garner money from Congress. And ... I just want them to release the unredacted files."
He continued: "Let's get the truth out there and let the American public decide. You're looking at ... some of the TikTok videos, hopefully, have one of the pilots who was actually filming those craft at that time in our hearing, hopefully."
Burchett said: "We're getting blowback from the Pentagon and some of the other alphabet agencies that have backed out from us. I think NASA backed out on us. And I get it; they don't want to talk."
The Tennessee Republican added that Congress is "the country's checkbook" and "Congress needs to get some guts and start flexing our muscle a little bit and releasing some of these files."
He later said that "you’re seeing the swamp in play" when it comes to internal pushback against the hearing.
"It's in both parties," Burchett said. "You have staff trying to run the thing and ... basically trying to crash the whole whole meeting, trying to make it so it won't happen or discredit it."
He said: "That's what the hearing is for. It's not for staffers or lobbyists to make some decision. It's for Congress to call these people in and decide if they are legitimate or not legitimate, in fact. So I'm not afraid of the American public knowing what's going on, and this is just another indication that we're over the target."