It sounds to me like he took his own money and interest and brought it with him into the fold as a defense contractor.
Maybe not the clearest thing I've ever said. Just speculation. Probably in the wrong thread.
I know Robert Bigelow put buckets of his own money into his personal interest. Apparently he lost his son and that may have been the accelerant, similar to the UVA's Division of Perceptual Studies. Dr.Ian Stevenson was the founder but the funding came from a very similar person - a donor wealthy enough to establish the organization who had lost a child and could afford to indulge their interest.
But that has nothing to do with the military, national security, etc.
I assumed that if someone like Bigelow became entrenched as a defense contractor he would have access to the rarefied group TDL claims to. He'd probably be part of it, actually. He had the clout to get a response from Harry Reid. Better to spend the taxpayer's 22 million than his own. NIDS v.20.
Maybe the Big Secret is that there hasn't been any particularly well organized response to UFOs and he's now it. Bigelow is the Great and Powerful Oz.