Earlier this summer, state lawmakers took a jab at the extraterrestrial.

During a House Communications and Technology Committee hearing, questions explored the growing body of evidence around unidentified anonymous phenonemon– UAP, the new term for UFOs.

“We call them UAP now because it’s not just flying objects. And also that term [UFO] is so loaded with baggage. UFOs, people immediately think of aliens, even though it’s supposed to connote unidentified,” said Chris Mellon, chairman of the Disclosure Foundation based in Washington DC. Mellon was previously a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence.

The Disclosure Foundation, established in March of 2025, has tracked releases of data from the federal government.

“It seems inevitable that there’s life elsewhere, probably an infinite amount of it in an infinite universe. The question really is, can any of it reach us?” Mellon said.

When examining UAPs, experts were questioned on the debates of if objects are linked to other countries… or to life beyond.

“One of the big issues is whether or not we’ve actually recovered physical proof that some of these objects are not from this world,” Mellon said. “We have some credible sources who make that claim.”

State legislation was not explicitly discussed; Mellon says mandating state police and other emergency responders to send their data to the federal government’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office could contribute to research efforts.

Lawmakers learned about the unknown, but also highlighted how space exploration incentivizes very down to earth innovation;

“Velcro came from space, the way we dry freeze foods to have, that was space exploration. So there’s a lot more than just saying, you know, ‘a little green man’,” said Rep. Joe Ciresi, chair of the house committee that hosted the hearing.

More recent, companies in Pittsburgh are helping build equipment for the next visit to the moon.

“Artemis 3, the mission is to land on the moon, for a future colonization of the moon. There is going to be Pennsylvanians on there. It’s going to be Pennsylvania technology that ends up on there,” Ciresi said. You know, what do we do to advance the area of technology for space exploration? It’s a whole new market.”