Waived Unacknowledged Special Access Programs (USAPs)
Waived Unacknowledged Special Access Programs (USAPs) represent the highest classification tier within the U.S. government's Special Access Program (SAP) framework. Unlike standard SAPs, which require regular congressional reporting, waived USAPs allow the Secretary of Defense to exempt specific programs from normal congressional oversight notifications, reporting instead only to the "Gang of Eight" — the eight senior congressional leaders (majority and minority leaders of both chambers plus the chairs and ranking members of the intelligence committees) — at minimum under 10 U.S. Code Section 119. Programs designated as waived and unacknowledged may be unknown even to most members of the congressional armed services and defense appropriations committees, making meaningful legislative oversight extremely limited. The legal basis for this structure derives from post-World War II statutory authorities and is implemented through a series of classified DoD directives.
Unacknowledged SAPs (USAPs) more broadly are described in UAP Gerb's Special Access Required Vol.2 as programs whose mere existence and purpose is protected — funding is typically classified or hidden within the broader federal budget without a direct programmatic link — requiring cleared personnel to hold indoctrination beyond standard Top Secret/SCI access. Citing the Joint Security Commission's 1994 report "Redefining Security," the video states unacknowledged SAPs run roughly three to ten times the security costs of acknowledged SAPs, with estimated security costs reaching as high as 40% of total operational costs for some unacknowledged programs — a figure the video connects to the Wilson-Davis notes' claim, attributed to General Mike Costanik, that the legacy program's security budget ran two to seven times the size of the underlying program budget.
Access Approval Authority
Per DoD Instruction 5205.05 and reporting cited in Special Access Required Vol.2, the access-approval authority for waived programs is limited to the Deputy Secretary of Defense, special Under Secretaries of Defense, or a component head holding relevant "cognizant authority." Waived programs are still nominally required to be reported to the congressional Gang of Eight, though UAP Gerb argues this reporting requirement is itself frequently circumvented for legacy program-related waived USAPs. David Grusch has publicly described meeting privately with former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid roughly nine months before Reid's death, at which Reid — a former Gang of Eight member — reportedly told Grusch: "Yeah, I knew we had UFO material. I was denied access for decades."