The Senator Who Funded the Secret Programme

Senator Harry Reid — Senate Majority Leader from 2007 to 2015 — was the driving force behind the classified $22 million funding allocation that created the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) in 2007. Reid secured the funding through the defence appropriations process with support from Senators Daniel Inouye and Ted Stevens, directing it to Bigelow Aerospace's Advanced Space Studies division for initial research.

Reid was motivated by long-standing interest in the phenomenon and believed it represented a genuine national security issue that the military was failing to take seriously. He maintained a low public profile on the topic during his Senate career.

Speaking Out

After retiring from the Senate, Reid became increasingly vocal about the subject, stating in multiple interviews that he believed the U.S. government possessed recovered non-human craft and was withholding information from elected officials and the public. He died in December 2021, but not before advocating publicly for the disclosure legislation that bears his influence.