Washington spent decades telling Americans not to worry about mysterious objects in the sky.
Now one state is calling their bluff.
And a Vermont lawmaker dropped one bombshell about UFO sightings that has Pentagon officials squirming.
Vermont Creates State UFO Investigation Panel After Government Cover Up
Vermont Representative Troy Headrick introduced legislation that would create the Vermont Airspace Safety and Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Task Force.
The bill gives Vermont its own panel to investigate reports of objects in the sky and water that can't be explained.
Headrick's bill targets objects showing "performance characteristics not consistent with currently understood technologies" like "instantaneous acceleration absent observable inertia or hypersonic velocity without a corresponding thermal signature or sonic boom."
That's not science fiction talk.
Those are the exact same terms Pentagon officials use when they brief Congress behind closed doors about UAPs.
The 10-member task force would bring together officials from Vermont's transportation and public safety departments alongside lawmakers and outside experts.
They'd investigate sightings, assess airspace safety risks, and coordinate with federal partners on policy improvements.
Headrick admitted he's "not a subject matter expert at all" but said policymakers have "an obligation to remain attentive to emerging trends" in public safety.
Translation: the Feds aren't giving straight answers, so Vermont's doing it themselves.
New Jersey Drone Mystery Exposed Pentagon's National Security Failures
The Vermont bill comes directly from the New Jersey drone fiasco that had the entire country on edge.
Starting in November 2024, mysterious drone sightings exploded across New Jersey with reports of objects the "size of cars" flying over military installations, nuclear facilities, and residential neighborhoods.
The FBI received over 5,000 tips about the drone sightings.
Federal officials initially fumbled the response, alternating between "nothing to see here" and imposing flight restrictions backed by "deadly force."
Pentagon officials said the drones weren't theirs and shot down Rep. Jeff Van Drew's theory about an Iranian "mothership" launching them off the East Coast.
Turns out most of the "drones" were commercial aircraft, satellites, or the planet Venus misidentified by panicked residents.
The TSA later revealed that three high-profile incidents — including one that prevented a medical helicopter evacuation — were just normal planes approaching airports.
When aircraft fly directly toward observers on the ground, they appear to hover.
Sociologists called it a "mass panic" comparable to World War I hysteria about German spies.
But the damage was done.
Americans watched their government agencies contradict each other for weeks while offering zero transparency about what was actually happening.
Maggie Lenz, the lobbyist who pushed Headrick to introduce the Vermont bill, said the New Jersey chaos proved the need for state-level investigation panels.
"I'm certainly not saying that it's aliens," Lenz stated.
"But I do think just having the conversation here in Vermont will begin to allow for it to be taken a little bit more seriously."
Pentagon UFO Program Exposed by Military Whistleblowers
Vermont's move exposes how badly Washington has bungled UFO investigations.
The Pentagon has run roughly two dozen separate UFO programs since 1945, depending on how you count them.
Project Sign, Project Grudge, Project Blue Book — the names change but the pattern stays the same.
Investigate quietly, debunk aggressively, tell the public nothing.
Congress passed the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act in 2023 requiring the Pentagon to come clean about what it knows.
The Pentagon created the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office in 2022 to standardize UAP investigations across the military.
AARO's director testified in 2024 that the office is analyzing several "true anomalies" that he can't explain with his physics and engineering background.
But AARO released a report in March 2024 claiming they found "no empirical evidence" of alien technology after reviewing cases back to 1945.
Military whistleblowers told Congress a completely different story.
Navy pilots described Tic Tac-shaped craft performing maneuvers that defy known physics.
A former Pentagon UAP task force member testified under oath that the government possesses "quite a number" of "nonhuman" vehicles and he knows where they're hidden.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said "multiple credible sources" told him information is being "withheld from Congress."
The late Senator Harry Reid pushed for UFO funding for years because he believed "it only scratches the surface of research and materials available."
As of October 2024, AARO reported 1,652 total UAP cases with 757 new reports filed during just a 13-month period.
The office resolved 49 cases as prosaic objects like balloons and birds.
But 21 cases "merit further analysis" and 444 cases "lacked sufficient data" and got archived for future review.
That means hundreds of cases remain unexplained despite the Pentagon's claims there's nothing to see.
Military Base Drone Incursions Expose National Security Threat
Headrick offered the House Government Operations Committee a more practical pitch than hunting aliens.
"The proliferation of drone use — this is where I see the need for data," Headrick explained.
Vermont wants concrete answers about the surge in drone activity throughout the state.
Commercial drones, hobbyist drones, law enforcement drones — nobody's tracking who's flying what and where they're going.
That's a massive national security threat the Feds have ignored.
Drone incursions over military bases surged 82% from 2023 to 2024, with approximately 420 sightings reported over sensitive installations.
Langley Air Force Base in Virginia saw drone swarms for 17 straight nights, forcing the relocation of America's most advanced F-22 Raptor stealth fighters.
Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey — where advanced weapons are designed — confirmed 11 drone sightings over the facility.
In the UK, drones disrupted operations at air bases where U.S. nuclear weapons are stored.
The head of NORAD and NORTHCOM admitted to Congress that "some of those mysterious drones seen flying inside the United States may indeed have been spying."
He didn't say for whom.
Headrick even threw in a sweetener for skeptics.
"For the cryptids fans in the room, there's an underwater provision to this as well," Headrick joked.
"So if we want to investigate Champ, we can do that."
Champ is Vermont's version of the Loch Ness Monster supposedly living in Lake Champlain.
The bill hasn't been voted on by committee yet.
But Vermont's willingness to investigate UAPs at the state level sends a clear message to Washington.
If the Feds won't provide transparency about what's flying through American airspace, states will start doing it themselves.
And when Vermont starts publishing reports about unexplained objects the Pentagon claims don't exist, that's going to create a serious credibility problem for federal officials who've spent decades stonewalling the public.
Sources:
- Julia Bonavita, "UFO task force eyed as lawmaker warns of strange objects in skies and waters defying known technology," Fox News, January 19, 2026.
- Kevin McCallum, "Vermont Lawmaker Proposes Establishing a UFO Panel," Seven Days Vermont, January 13, 2026.
- "2024 United States drone sightings," Wikipedia, accessed January 19, 2026.
- "Fiscal Year 2024 Consolidated Annual Report on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena," Department of Defense All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office, November 14, 2024.
- Bryan Bender, "What the feds knew about the New Jersey drone scare," Reason Magazine, May 9, 2025.
- Bill Whitaker, "How the U.S. is confronting the threat posed by drones swarming sensitive national security sites," CBS News 60 Minutes, June 29, 2025.