Congress will hold an open hearing on UFOs for the first time in decades next week. The session before a House committee will come five months after the National Defense Authorization Act required the military to establish a permanent UFO research office.

“Congress hasn’t held a public hearing on unidentified aerial phenomena (UFO’s) in over 50 years. That will change next week when I lead a hearing…Americans need to know more about these unexplained occurrences,” the panel chair, Rep. André Carson (D-IN), wrote on Twitter Tuesday.

Lawmakers are expected to focus on a preliminary assessment of 144 reports of “unidentified aerial phenomena” recorded since 2004.

The hearing before the House Intelligence Committee’s Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation Subcommittee will mark the first time Congress has held a public hearing on the issue since the inconclusive UFO investigation called Project Blue Book ended in 1969.