Church Committee Investigates Intelligence Classification Practices

The U.S. Senate established the Church Committee, chaired by Senator Frank Church, to investigate abuses by the CIA, FBI, and NSA. While the committee focused on domestic surveillance and covert operations rather than UFOs specifically, its findings exposed the extent to which intelligence agencies could classify and compartmentalise information without meaningful oversight. The committee's work led to the creation of permanent intelligence oversight committees in Congress and informed later arguments that UFO programmes may have operated outside proper Congressional authority.