Connecticut’s legislative Appropriations Committee held a public hearing on a bill directing UConn to “conduct a study of unidentified aerial phenomena,” (UAP), also known as UFOs, and testimony included a request from a UConn official for $300,000 to complete the work that would be required by the law.
If passed, HB 5422, or An Act Concerning a Study of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, would require UConn researchers to collaborate with officials at the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (DESPP), the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), the Office of Military Affairs, as well as a “nonprofit dedicated to the investigation of UFO sightings,” and send a report to the General Assembly on the topic by July 1, 2027.
The bill was proposed by Rep. Joe Hoxha (R- Bristol).
“There is a growing contingent of people both inside and outside of government that want to study and better understand what goes on in our skies, because these sightings do happen and many times they truly do exist as physical objects,” Hoxha said in written testimony. “Today a lot of this work is done by private organizations and information is often not centralized for easy access for both government officials and non-governmental interested parties alike.”
The people who submitted testimony had a wide range of motivations.
“Establishing a scientific study, both for public policy, for our scientific curiosity, and for public reporting mechanisms would be important,” Sri Tata, a PhD student at Yale University who is studying condensed matter theory and quantum topography, testified at the March 12 hearing. “This is a great opportunity for the state to establish a working committee to study the feasibility of studying the issue.”
In addition to speaking at the public hearing, Tata submitted written testimony in support of the bill that was co-signed by multiple students and professors, including three professors of astrophysics and a professor of immunobiology.
The hearing also drew far-ranging testimony. Another supporter, Rian Becker, wrote, “This [study] will prove that Chester Arthur was not a human and was the first alien to serve as President of the United States. I am sure there are more of them. Look at Joe Biden and Richard Nixon. Both appear to have come from the same planet as “Chester”.”
Commissioner Ronnell A. Higgins of DESPP didn’t oppose the bill, but did express concern in testimony that the bill would improperly purport to give UConn researchers access to sensitive law enforcement data.
“Much of the data maintained by DESPP is sensitive and restricted to law enforcement or other authorized entities due to public safety and national security considerations,” Higgins wrote. “Because this information may not be accessible to non-law enforcement entities, we respectfully request that provisions be removed from the bill to avoid potential conflicts with existing data access restrictions.”
Kylene Perras, the assistant dean of UConn’s College of Engineering, requested that taxpayer funds also be allocated.
“Like many public institutions, UConn is operating under significant financial constraints. We have been managing major budget pressures through cost controls, enrollment growth, and careful use of reserves,” Perras wrote in her testimony. “These measures already limit our capacity to absorb new unfunded mandates without impacting core academic and research priorities.”
In her testimony, Perras asked that the Appropriations Committee allocate $300,000 to establish a pilot study on UAP. She said that the school would need $150,000 for a primary faculty contributor, graduate research assistants, new equipment and supplies, and computing services. An additional $150,000 would be needed to bring in other faculty members.
Inside Investigator could not reach Perras for questions about this pilot program.
Though the proposed bill does not allocate any money for the pilot program, instead directing UConn to complete the study “within available resources,” financial concerns were commonly cited in opposing testimony.
“It is a waste of money,” Harold Crevier wrote. “Connecticut has many issues that need attention. UFOs are not one of them.”
You can read all the testimony on HB 5422 here.
If the bill became law, UConn would join a handful of schools in the United States where the study UFOs and extraterrestrial beings is conducted, including Harvard University, which has its Galileo Project, Montana Technological University, where a professor teaches an anthropology class on UFOs, the University of Albany, which has the UAlbany Project X, and Pennsylvania State University, which has an Extraterrestrial Intelligence Center.
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