The search for the straight dope on UFOs – and where to host all of that information – has stretched beyond the walls of the Pentagon and become a whole-of-government affair.
Under a new records management provision — which was tucked into the recently enacted 2024 National Defense Authorization Act — Federal agencies must begin reviewing, identifying, and organizing records relating to unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) –
or UFOs as they are more commonly known. Agencies then must hand those over to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for a governmentwide repository of records dealing with UAPs.
“Agencies have until the end of the current fiscal year [on Sept. 30] to submit UAP records custody for disclosure to the public and transmission to the National Archives,” according to a memo to Federal agency records managers from Laurence Brewer, chief records officer for the U.S. Government, and Chris Naylor, NARA’s executive for research services.
NARA is tasked with providing Federal agency records officers with guidance on how to create and manage this collection, as well as a standard form or finding aid to use in identifying and reviewing records in the new UAP collection.
NARA said it plans to provide this guidance soon.
Meanwhile, it is asking agencies to expedite the collection process by identifying all unidentified anomalous phenomena records as required by the law.
“Agencies should begin planning on how to create metadata and review these records,” the memo reads. “A preview of the type of metadata or information NARA will need is agency name, file identifiers, document title, date, originator, from, to, location, classification level, restrictions, and number of pages. We will need to know what records can be publicly disclosed and what records must be protected, in whole or in part.”
NARA will provide more guidance and communications as it continues to develop processes to identify records responsive to the new provision and instructions for how to transfer them to the National Archives.
