UFO expert Nick Pope said he hopes the House Oversight Committee's hearing on unidentified phenomena will provide greater insight as to what has been recorded in U.S. airspace. On "Fox & Friends" Wednesday, Pope explained that questions have arisen from both UFO enthusiasts and government institutions as to whether strange sightings are linked to something extraterrestrial.

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NICK POPE: Something is going on in our airspace, and it's not just UFO enthusiasts saying this. This is now coming from the government. They have declassified some U.S. Navy videos of these things. There have been two reports from the office of the Director of National Intelligence, some previous congressional hearings and more to come, and NASA doing a study. And there's no smoke without fire. There is a reality here. But whether or not it's an extraterrestrial reality, we don't quite have that smoking gun yet. But I hope today is going to take us closer to it.

The House Oversight Committee's hearing on UFOs was called to "explore firsthand accounts of unidentified anomalous phenomena" and "shed some light" on what the federal government thinks about them. 

The hearing on Capitol Hill comes after David Charles Grusch, a decorated Air Force veteran and one of three people who will testify, claimed the existence of a secret government program he said has been recovering crashed UFOs and reverse engineering their technology. The Department of Defense has disputed his claim. 

"We’re bringing in credible witnesses who can provide public testimony because the American people deserve the truth. We’re done with the cover-ups," Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., said in a statement. 

The hearing, "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency," will examine "firsthand accounts of unidentified anomalous phenomena and assess the federal government’s transparency and accountability regarding UAPs’ possible threats to U.S. national security

Fox News' Greg Norman contributed to this report.