A bipartisan bill encouraging commercial pilots to report UAP sightings is “long overdue,” according to ASA executive Ryan Graves, a former U.S. Navy fighter pilot.

“We’ve been hearing from pilots how happy they are that there’s now an opportunity to speak about these issues, on (a) regular basis, Graves said Thursday on “The Hill.” Graves is one of the whistleblowers from July’s congressional hearing on UFOs.

During his testimony before the House Oversight Committee, Graves asked Congress to provide safe reporting options for commercial pilots.

“On (a) regular basis, commercial pilots are seeing unknown objects. … And these are some of our most trusted operators up there. We have to trust this sensor network that we have above us to be able to detect these objects, and we have to take them serious,” Graves added.

The new bipartisan bill, announced Thursday, looks to encourage commercial pilots to report sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena, or unidentified flying objects, to the United States government.

The effort — led by Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., and Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis. — aims to promote safe airspace for Americans by encouraging pilots to report any potential sightings to the government.

It would also require the Federal Aviation Administration to relay all reports to the Department of Defense’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office. The bill will also set up legal safeguards for all pilots who make these reports to the federal government.

NewsNation’s Devan Markham contributed to this report.