Answer: So, first things first, just because it's in a bill, or somebody said something on the floor of congress, doesn't mean that it's a statement of fact. Congress is full of regular people-- perhaps even over-representing people who are somewhat different than normal (I think you have to have some level of narcissism to survive a campaign for national political office, nevermind win), and they can believe and say anything they want to, on the floor of the house.
Please also keep in mind that everything I will state below is all just *stuff people have said*. Those people may be more or less credible, have certain credentials, a successful career in the military or intelligence agencies, but at the end of the day, all we have right now is what people have said.
There are two factions of people in this series of developments, who we should keep track of: 1. the politicians who express interest or willingness to pursue "disclosure", and 2. The members of the military, intelligence agencies, government contractors, and other employees who claim to have access to documentation -- _and sometimes even the crafts themselves_ -- who are willing to come forward and state those claims on the record.
First, let's look at the politicians. At least one member of Hilary Clinton's campaign, John Podesta, expressed an interest in spearheading UFO disclosure. Campaign members close to the candidate are usually rewarded with cabinet positions if the candidate wins, so he likely would have been able to pursue this.
Hillary Clinton Gives U.F.O. Buffs Hope She Will Open the X-Files Hillary Clinton Promises to Share Government Info on U.F.O.s Obviously Hillary lost, so disclosure didn't happen as some had hoped.
Interestingly, President Trump later said in an interview he was brief on Navy pilot sightings of UFOs: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/15/trump-says-he-doesnt-particularly-believe-ufo-reports-1365848
So there is some interest among certain politicians to release more information to the public about what the government may know about UFOs. Interestingly one of those politicians is Senator Gillibrand, the junior senator from New York, who took Hillary's senate seat after she left to run for president-- so Gillibrand may be carrying the torch of Hillary's disclosure plans.
You are probably aware that several years ago, the New York times ran an article about a secret government program to track UAPs, or what we used to call UFOs. In tandem with the article, they also released videos recorded by Navy pilots and other craft operators, of the UFOs, from 2 or 3 incidents in the past 20 years.
The source of this information and the Navy videos is a man named Lou Elizondo, who was the head of that secret program. Long short, he claimed to have quit his position in protest that the military and government weren't doing more to research UAPs and understand any threat they may pose to the US.
After a period of media and talkshow appearances -- as far as I can tell, primarily on UFO and related podcasts-- he left the limelight of media and claimed to be working behind the scenes with others in the government who were willing to come forward.
After this release of information, congress created a new UFO agency and charged it with reporting their findings. In the summer of 2022, congress had the first hearings on UFOs since the 1960s (interestingly lead by then-congressman Gerald Ford, whose constituents in Michigan had had UFO experiences and were unsatisfied with government explanations. This is the sighting where the famous "swamp gas" debunking/explanation originates from).
The findings of the task force at that point were disappointing, to say the least, but one should note that the agency was seemingly underfunded and didn't have a strong enough legal mandate. So the congresspeople who are supporting disclosure moved to give them more funding and a better mandate. That was a year ago.
Meanwhile, Elizondo seems to have been making good on his promise to get other whisteblowers to come forward, and in the past month, the first one has-- David Grusch, an Air Force Intelligence official, who in the past month testified that the US goverment (and others) has recovered crashed vehicles... and the pilots, on some occasions. Again, remember, though he may be credible, and he is testifying under oath, it's still just his story.
He purportedly has provided the documentation to the relevant Senate committees, but those documents are understandably classified.
So now, with the situation seeming to be 1. The military dragging its feet on the official new investigation, 2. at least one additional whistleblower having come forward, and more promised, the politicians who are supporting disclosure are working with those presently-behind-the-scenes whistleblowers, to write new legislation that closes loopholes and has less wiggle room for the military and contractors to wiggle out of.
For instance, if congress passes a new law saying that the military, government agencies, and contractors all have to release whatever information they have on UFOs, they will all say, "That's fine, we don't have anything on UFOs", because the new term for them is UAP. That might sound like a word game, and to some extent it is. But that's the reality that lawmakers have to work with.
THIS IS SPECULATION ON THE PART OF UFO RESEARCHERS. One of the theories you will hear on UFO podcasts is that the US goverment gave recovered craft to military contractors, such as Lockheed Martin and other defense contractors, in order to skirt FOIA laws and other government oversight. Private corporations have much less accountability and obligation to the public. WHAT I'VE JUST MENTIONED IS SPECULATION BY UFO RESEARCHERS.
So pro-disclosure politicians have put language in the Defense Spending bill (the giant and ever-increasing mountain of cash that congress dumps on the military) to attempt to nail down all the UFO stuff, no matter what its called, or who has it, military or contractor. The defense spending bill has popular bi-partisan support, and it contains millions of other things, of which a tiny UFO agency and some new laws regarding disclosure, are barely noticeable. So, that's how these lawmakers have been able to push this through.
There's many more details I've left out, but I can't be writing all night.
The next hearing is scheduled (tentatively) for July 27th! Hopefully a new whistleblower! : D