The controversial Colorado representative, who overwhelmingly won her new congressional district, asked witnesses if they were aware of any “known instances of recovered materials or technologies that are not of human origin” that were connected to “advanced bioscience defense programs” within the U.S. government. After the witnesses said they were unaware of any such recovery, the congresswoman got into the details.

“There are rumors that have come up to the Hill of a secretive project within the Department of Defense involving the manipulation of human genetics with what is described as nonhuman genetic material potentially for the enhancement of human capabilities,” Boebert said.

Boebert did not explain the source of the “rumors” but what she described is similar to scenarios laid out by notorious conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who has claimed a secret elite is melding alien genetics with humans to create a new species. It is also possible that Boebert was describing the comic book superhero Aquaman, who is the product of relations between mythical merfolk and humans. She did not elaborate.

One witness, right-wing anti-renewable energy activist Michael Shellenberger, told Boebert that the Pentagon is actively working to hide details of encounters between the Navy and possible aliens.

Boebert took this moment as a launching point to ask, “Are there any accounts of [unidentified anomalous phenomena] emerging from or submerging into our water, which could indicate a base or presence beneath the ocean’s surface?”

Shellenberger couldn’t confirm or deny Boebert’s underwater alien base theory but told the congresswoman he had seen footage of “an orb coming out of the ocean and being met by another orb.”

There was a 2023 report of a small golden orb found on the sea floor in Alaska; scientists are unclear about its origin. But the details of that story are not nearly as dramatic as Shellenberger’s description of orb-on-orb interaction.

As far as the “base” theory Boebert floated, she could again be making a reference to Atlantis, where “Aquaman” lives with the other Atlanteans in DC Comics; the Atlantis of Marvel Comics where the similarly powered Namor the Sub-Mariner resides; or it could even be the Atlantica of Disney’s “Little Mermaid,” where Ariel and her family of merfolk live and sing under the sea.

The congresswoman did not elaborate during this taxpayer-funded line of questioning.

But the moment very likely telegraphs the direction the incoming GOP-led government is likely to take. Since Republicans took control of the House in 2022, they have used their majority power to pursue conspiracy theories and crusades against their political opponents, like the investigation into President Joe Biden’s son Hunter and his infamous laptop.

For Republicans, the drive to push conspiracies comes directly from the top. After all, President-elect Trump launched birther conspiracy theories against rivals Barack Obama and Nikki Haley and has alleged climate change is a Chinese “hoax.” So America can expect even more probes into the underwater alien base mystery, and the entire country will finance the insanity.