EARTH, Laniakea Supercluster—A highly anticipated, classified briefing on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), set to occur last week in a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF), was noticeably missing some key people: former intelligence officials Luis Elizondo, David Grusch, and Christopher Mellon. These absences have left lawmakers frustrated and are raising questions about how congressional investigations are going, especially regarding alleged government knowledge of extraterrestrial life.

Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), who leads the government’s Secret Task Force, explained the situation to Matt Laslo of Ask a Pol, “[Christopher] Melon got sick, Lue Elizondo got sick and Mr. [David] Grusch also is not feeling well, but Grusch has been very helpful.”

“My message is: We got the SCIF, you guys need to be here for the SCIF briefings,” she continued.

The supposed illnesses garnered the incident to being referred to online as the “SCIF flu.” This term highlights a recurring pattern of important witnesses canceling at the last minute.

This latest SCIF problem comes as UAPs are getting more attention in Congress. Since mid-2023, interest has grown on both sides of Capitol Hill after whistleblower Grusch's explosive testimony before the House Oversight Committee. Grusch, a former intelligence officer with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, claimed that the U.S. government has been secretly running programs to recover and reverse-engineer non-human spacecraft for a long time—a claim he repeated in media appearances. His allegations, while controversial, pushed lawmakers to pursue classified briefings to either confirm or deny these claims.

In recent months, Grusch has been working with Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO), one of the few voices in Congress along with Luna consistently pushing for more transparency on UAP-related issues. Burlison said that Grusch’s involvement was expected to provide unique insight into Special Access Programs (SAPs) that may be withholding information from Congress and the public. The idea was to create a closed-door setting where sensitive information could be handled within the protocols of a SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility). However, Grusch’s ongoing lack of security clearance—and personal matters that reportedly prevented him from attending—have stalled this plan.

These obstacles aren't isolated incidents. Several classified UAP briefings scheduled since late 2023 have been delayed or quietly canceled. Some insiders suggest that a mix of bureaucratic sluggishness, tension between agencies, and resistance from intelligence entities has hindered progress.

“It’s like trying to open a vault with a rubber key,” a former congressional aide familiar with the process told The Intercept. “Even when you schedule these SCIFs, there’s no guarantee the people who matter will show up—or be allowed to speak.”

The absence of people like Luis Elizondo, who used to lead the Pentagon’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), has only added to the frustration. Elizondo’s insights were expected to support Grusch’s by detailing the operational and defense-related implications of UAP encounters. Lawmakers were reportedly trying to find a pattern in the testimony between past DoD UAP programs and alleged off-the-books activity. With Elizondo also missing from the latest SCIF, what was promoted as a landmark classified hearing turned into a missed opportunity.

This happened shortly after Elizondo, the former AATIP director, supposedly made an embarrassing mistake by displaying a UFO photo at a Department of Defense-affiliated event open to the public, which was quickly debunked online. This moment seemed to hurt the session's credibility.

The broader UAP conversation also took an unexpected turn during the presentation when another present, physicist Dr. Eric Davis, described four distinct non-human species potentially interacting with Earth: Greys, Nordics, Reptilians, and Insectoids. Davis, known for his work with the Defense Intelligence Agency and a 2002 paper on “warp drive” physics, has long been a controversial figure in UAP circles, but having alien species referenced in a public, government setting was intriguing, to say the least.