Sen. Gillibrand: “I want to make sure our service members know they can come forward and disclose all projects they worked on” - Ask a Pol

There is a paywall for this, however, this is a pretty decent summary provided by reddit user Realistic_Bee_676.

There are a couple of important comments from KG and Matt's exclusive with Sen Warner the other day that we can make some inferences from. We know Sen Rounds met with Kirkpatrick this summer to encourage stronger whistle-blower protections. Sen Warner also said he and Rubio recently met with Kirkpatrick as well to reiterate this needs to be taken seriously. Now KG is saying she needs the whistle blowers to go to AARO so their claims can be investigated. So we can infer from this and previous reporting that whistleblowers are most likely going to Congress and the ICIG, they don't trust AARO. This combined with the now 3 month delay on AARO's annual report (KG says it expected in another month) shows us the SASC isn't happy with AARO. Her intent to do another public hearing is important, plus she intends to meet with Grusch soon. It appears to me the senate will continue to press AARO for answers, the hope is we get a public hearing with whistblowers as well as AARO/DOD to explain why the claims haven't been vetted and/or confirmed or found to be wrong. I am not confident AARO will give KG and others what they want. It's asking the Fox to investigate why the Hen house was attacked. I do think public pressure through reaching out to our Reps plus public hearings can force greater transparency and progress from AARO but ultimately, disclosure will not come from them. Too much of a conflict of interest but I do believe KG,Rubio and Rounds will have limited patience w/AARO and perhaps we get answers after the NDAA is passed or the ICIG completes their investigation