The PIDB held a virtual executive session on December 18, 2024. In recent weeks, Mary DeRosa, David Hickton, and Andrew Byrnes resigned from the Board. In the interim, Vice Chair Alissa Starzak will serve as acting chair. Ms. Starzak has previously served as acting chair, from June 5, 2020 to January 10, 2021, and again from January 11, 2023 to December 4, 2023. The Board thanked Ms. DeRosa for serving as chair, and Mr. Byrnes and Hickton for their service.
Acting Chair Starzak led the meeting which was attended by PIDB members Carter Burwell, Andrew Byrnes, Ezra Cohen, Laura DeBonis, and Carmen Medina. The meeting featured a briefing on NARA’s Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs) records project by Chris Naylor, Executive for Research Services; Dr. William Fischer, Director NDC and Acting Chief Records Officer; and
Dr. William Carpenter, Associate Director. NARA has established Record Group 615 Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Records Collection which will consist of the digital records transferred to NARA. Federal agencies will transfer UAP identified records that can be publicly disclosed by September 30, 2025. NARA has a website, https://www.archives.gov/research/topics/uaps, for the collection. Researchers can access articles, blog posts, and records available in the catalog.
In addition to the briefing, the members discussed with PIDB Executive Secretary Michael Thomas the work plan for 2025.
The agenda for the meeting is available on the PIDB’s webpage.
With these new openings on the Board, perhaps the PIDB could make recommendations to the President/Speaker/Majority and Minority Leaders in the House and Senate to appoint new members who have actual declassification experience. After all, “Declassification” is in the title of the Board, and law degrees aren’t known for imparting knowledge germane to advising on improvements to the declassification process.
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