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Andrew Tennenbaum, a NASA employee, outside of NASA\u2019s headquarters in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Anastasia Obis\/Federal News Network)<\/p>\nNASA Needs Help, a grassroots group made up of NASA employees and supporters, gathered peacefully outside the agency\u2019s headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Monday to protest funding and staffing cuts that threaten to decimate the nation\u2019s premier scientific institution.<\/p>\n
Protesters chanted, \u201cWhen NASA is under attack, what do we do? Rise up, fight back!\u201d as they criticized proposed budget cuts that could slash the agency\u2019s funding by nearly 25% and President Donald Trump\u2019s recent executive order that strips NASA workers of their collective bargaining rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cNASA is a tangible product of the greatest expression of the American dream. All of humanity has mused about reaching into the stars, and through decades of unified support by Congress, by presidents and the American public, we\u2019ve done it. Dismantling this American institution is a travesty that no one voted for,\u201d Colette Delawalla, executive director of Stand Up for Science, said at the protest.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAs I stand here today, the White House is tearing apart the ecosystem that has resulted in a flourishing economy, global leadership in tech and science and progress, public health efforts that save millions of lives a year, national security that keeps us safe and a rich and vibrant intellectual community and a system where kids can grow up to want to be an astronaut,\u201d she added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrew Tennenbaum, a NASA employee, outside of NASA\u2019s headquarters in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Anastasia Obis\/Federal News Network)<\/p>\n
The Trump administration has aggressively pursued funding cuts and personnel layoffs across the country\u2019s scientific and research agencies, and NASA has become one of the biggest casualties. The agency has lost nearly 4,000 employees through the deferred resignation program \u2013 about 20% of its workforce. Now, the Trump administration has issued an executive order cancelling collective bargaining rights at multiple federal agencies, including NASA, arguing that the roles those workers perform are tied to national security.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNASA is not an intelligence agency. NASA is a scientific agency. And NASA workers have been collectively bargaining for decades with no harm to national security. This is just a pretext for expanding Trump\u2019s attack on the labor movement as a whole,\u201d Monica Gorman, area vice president of Goddard Engineers, Scientists and Technicians Association, which represents employees at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The administration\u2019s move to cancel collective bargaining agreements is the biggest rollback of labor protections NASA employees have ever faced \u2014 the executive order impacts thousands of NASA scientists, engineers and technicians and removes union rights that protected half of the agency\u2019s workforce for decades.<\/p>\n
Gorman argued stripping worker\u2019s union rights will put NASA\u2019s mission at risk since it would make the agency\u2019s employees less likely to \u201cspeak up and bring up inconvenient concerns.\u201d Gorman, who serves as an operations research analyst at NASA, said it\u2019s important for her to be able to provide independent cost estimates for NASA missions without fear of retaliation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA huge part of the reason that I have that independence and that my colleagues do is that as a union represented worker, I know that I am protected from unfair retaliation. I can\u2019t get in trouble arbitrarily when I have union rights, and now the Trump administration says I don\u2019t have union rights anymore, and that\u2019s supposed to make us work more efficiently,\u201d Gorman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019ve learned from Apollo One, from Challenger and from Columbia, is that these catastrophes don\u2019t happen out of nowhere. People see them coming. People have concerns, and if people don\u2019t feel safe at work, if they don\u2019t have the trust that they can speak up and bring those concerns forward without retaliation, then those concerns get buried,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
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Matthew Biggs, International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers president. (Photo by Anastasia Obis\/Federal News Network)<\/p>\n
NASA\u2019s implementation of the executive order includes terminating collective bargaining agreements with labor unions, stopping NASA\u2019s collection of union dues on behalf of labor unions, and evicting unions from their office space. Matthew Biggs, International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers president, said NASA will be added to an ongoing lawsuit challenging the termination of collective bargaining rights later this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re not going to eliminate us. We are going to survive. We\u2019re going to continue to represent our members. We\u2019re going nowhere,\u201d Biggs said.<\/p>\n
]]><\/p>\n
\u201cWhy are they doing this? Number one, they want to silence the workforce. They want to silence the workers at NASA. And it\u2019s also a lot easier to do [reduction in force] if there\u2019s no labor unions there to challenge them,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Fighting continuing resolution<\/b><\/p>\n
Many of the speakers also called on Congress to pass what they called a \u201cfighting\u201d continuing resolution that includes protections for scientific federal agencies.<\/p>\n
The deadline to avoid a government shutdown is fast approaching \u2013 lawmakers have until midnight on Sept. 30 to avoid a lapse in government funding. House Republicans already unveiled legislation to keep the government open through Nov. 21, but it is unclear if they have the votes to pass the bill.<\/p>\n
Mollie Manier, an employee at National Institutes of Health, said the group wants a stopgap funding bill that does not just \u201ckeep the lights on, but includes checks on this administration\u2019s authoritarian overreach and protections for institutions and federal workers.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Jayrick Hayes and Ann outside of NASA\u2019s headquarters in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Anastasia Obis\/Federal News Network)<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re urging Congress to insist on a fighting CR for the long-term benefit of this nation and we as federal workers are willing to suffer some short-term pain to get it,\u201d Manier said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do not want a shutdown, but we would rather have a shutdown than the continued dismantling of our institutions and destruction of our public goods that are causing harm to the American people,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
The White House\u2019s proposed budget for NASA is $18.8 billion for fiscal 2026 \u2014 a 24% decrease from approximately $24.8 billion in 2025. The proposal targets the agency\u2019s entire satellite program, NASA\u2019s fundamental science research, such as astrophysics,\u00a0 planetary science and heliophysics, among others. Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at The Planetary Society, called the proposal<\/a> \u201can extinction-level event.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the House and Senate appropriations committee have advanced their versions of the annual spending bill that funds NASA \u2014 the House voted to keep NASA\u2019s budget the same as last year, while the Senate bill would give the agency a slight increase in spending.<\/p>\n If you would like to contact this reporter about recent changes in the federal government, please email anastasia.obis@federalnewsnetwork.com or reach out on Signal at (301) 830-2747.<\/b><\/p>\n ]]><\/p>\n Copyright
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