(CNSNews.com) - Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) says she plans to hold a hearing on "unidentified aerial phenomena" this coming week.
The hearing comes after the Washington Post reported that U.S. intelligence agencies knew about as many as four additional Chinese spy balloons that the public never heard about.
The Post report was based on documents leaked to a gaming website by a 21-year-old Air National Guardsman.
The report said one of those spy balloon flew over a U.S. carrier strike group.
Gillibrand told CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday that as many as 171 aerial objects, not necessarily balloons, remain unidentified:
"I created, along with Senator Warner and Senator Rubio and Senator Heinrich and some others, an office within the DOD and the Intelligence Committee specifically to review every unidentified aerial phenomenon that the military has access to," Gillibrand said.
"And we have the most intense -- intensely specific technology that can video different aerial phenomena, that can get radar, heat sensing through our aircraft, through other radar detection. And so we set up this office two years ago.
“And, during that two years, they have reviewed over 300 different evidence of aerial phenomenon. About half of them were deemed to be weather balloons, this type of balloon technology, perhaps detection devices. About two dozen were deemed to be drones. A handful were debris or birds.
“And there was still 171 that they have not assessed what it is.
"And so this work has to be done. If we're going to have domain awareness, if we're going to have aerial dominance, if we want to make sure that our adversaries aren't spying on us, or using new technologies, or have aircraft that we don't even know how it functions or how fast it is or how effective it is, that is a national security risk.
"And so knowing what these aircraft are is essential. And the military, unfortunately, just hasn't been doing that work. They have just assumed they are non-adversarial because of how they fly or how they function. But I think knowing whether you are being spied on through different kinds of technology is essential to our national security.
"So this office is up and running. I'm working with colleagues to make sure it's fully funded. We're pushing the Biden administration and the military to ask for full funding this year. And I think it's vital."
The office tasked with resolving unidentified aerial/anomalous phenomena sightings is called the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO).
Gillibrand and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) are now leading a bipartisan push to fully fund the office. They said Fiscal Year 2023 funding falls short of what AARO needs to fulfill its mission and maintain American air supremacy.