(NewsNation) — A recent surge of interest in UFOs (unidentified flying objects, also known as UAPs) was sparked by whistleblower claims of secret government programs, but congressional interest in UFOs goes back even further, laying the groundwork for the current push for transparency.

Newly released UFO documentary “Age of Disclosure” has sparked even more interest in the history of UFO sightings and alleged government coverups, along with efforts by lawmakers to make the subject more transparent.

While then-Congressman Gerald Ford called for UFO hearings in the late 1960s, the most recent era of UFO investigation was led by a trio of lawmakers who began their work in secrecy.

Three senators propelled the Pentagon’s investigations into UFOs and led to the first public acknowledgement from the military that service members have interacted with flying objects they can’t explain.

It began with Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., in 1995, when he began secretly attending meetings held by a group of people interested in UFOs. Reid, who died in 2021, would keep his attendance at those meetings secret for decades.

Just as UAPs have proved to be a rare bipartisan issue in recent hearings, they brought together unlikely alliances, including that between Reid, a Democratic lawmaker, and real estate developer Robert Bigelow, a major conservative donor, who was the driving force behind those meetings.

But in 2007, Reid, who was then Senate majority leader, recruited the help of Sens. Daniel Inouye, a Hawaii Democrat, and Ted Stevens, a Republican from Alaska, to appropriate $22 million over five years to fund an office at the Pentagon to investigate unexplained sightings.

The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program remained secret until 2017, when the Defense Department confirmed the existence of its successor program, the Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force.

That’s the same year that videos leaked to the media showed Naval aviators encountering mysterious objects in the sky. It’s also the year whistleblower Luis Elizondo resigned from his role in the program over objections to its secrecy.

Since Elizondo began speaking out, the Defense Department has denied claims he made about UAP programs and his role at the agency.

The Pentagon did confirm the videos were legitimate in 2019, the first time the military acknowledged the existence of videos showing service members encountering UAPs.

Since then, there has been more acknowledgement from the Pentagon of offices designed to investigate UAP reports (UAPTF was disbanded in 2022 and replaced with the current All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office) and more whistleblowers.

Although the three senators who propelled the government into investigating UFOs are no longer here to see the results of their work — Inouye died in 2012 and Stevens in 2010 — AARO has been in the spotlight following allegations of secret programs by whistleblower David Grusch.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers has taken up the cause, with congressional hearings leading to leadership shakeups at AARO and admission from the office that there are sightings for which the military has no explanation.