Makes perfect sense to me. Instead of standing in Portugal watching beach wavelets to find an Italian restaurant in NYC expensed to a healthy NSA grant, why not simply wait? You don't even need a grant, not really, a cafe-press mugs&T-shirts page would do, and if 'they' have such advance intelligence as to travel interplanetarily, surely they wouldn't mind picking up the tab for breaking the ice with a short stop in to say 'boo'. Says Universe Today:

In a bold move, astronomers have begun a new search to understand and explain the origin, nature and prevalence of intelligent life in the universe. Called WETI, which stands for Wait for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence, the institute employs an entirely novel approach to achieve its goals. Instead of actively searching for extraterrestrial intelligence, the idea is to simply wait: Wait until the ETs find us. "Waiting is a notoriously underappreciated method in our efforts to search for extraterrestrial intelligence"
[ WETI Institute ]

Indeed, it is low-cost, environmentally friendly, and still allows time enough for a bar-tab or two, a plan I can endorse and I've got my membership in the Effortless Action Committee ready to frame up next to my PhD in Post-Rational Discourse. Mind you, I've talked to aliens, personally and often, and y'know, one o' these days, I suppose I should call up the Committee an' tell 'em.

btw, total aside, but I've always wondered: in a relativistic non-simultanous universe, what meaning has 'Today'?