(The Hill) — Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said Wednesday he believes aliens have underwater bases on Earth. “I just think travelin’ light years, I think it happens. I think it's possible in the vastness of God's great universe. I mean, light years, you know, the light from those stars that we see at night left there before the time of Christ,” Burchett said, joining former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-Fla.) One America News show, in a clip highlighted by Mediaite In April, Burchett implied in the wake of a classified briefing on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) that the government is purposefully concealing information on them to the American public. “I think there’s a cover-up,” Burchett said at the time. “There are tens of millions of dollars that we’ve spent investigating these things. We’ve had departments tell us that they have recovery units, but they won’t release full reports. Everything’s covered up,” Burchett added. In the summer of 2023, following a series of hearings during which multiple whistleblowers alleged the government hid information about ultra-high-tech craft of foreign or extraterrestrial origin, Burchett asked the intelligence community’s inspector general to further investigate the claims. “When they tell me something's moving at hundreds of miles an hour underwater, and our capabilities … and these things, this one was, it was large as a football field underwater. And this was a documented case, and … and I have an admiral telling me this stuff,” Burchett said Wednesday. In 2023, Burchett also headed up an effort to start a UAP caucus in the House, and he is a part of a group of lawmakers from both parties that have consistently pushed for greater transparency from officials in the military on government knowledge on UAP.