{"id":267132,"date":"2025-09-30T18:14:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T18:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/267132\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T18:14:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T18:14:11","slug":"nasa-accused-of-taking-illegal-steps-to-implement-trumps-budget-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/267132\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA Accused of Taking Illegal Steps to Implement Trump\u2019s Budget Proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"

With a government shutdown looming, Senate Democrats claim NASA is taking steps to implement the Trump administration\u2019s budget proposal<\/a> before Congress acts on appropriations bills<\/a>. The preemptive cuts are part of \u201can illegal plot\u201d to gut the agency, they say.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Destruction of NASA\u2019s Mission,\u201d a report<\/a> released Monday by the Democratic staff of the Senate Commerce Committee, alleges that the White House budget office has been pushing NASA to carry out the \u201cdevastating\u201d cuts outlined in the 2026 budget proposal for months. The report cites evidence gleaned from whistleblower documents and interviews to argue that the budget office and NASA are acting in clear violation of the Constitution.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile this report documents the illegal destruction happening at NASA, there can be no doubt the Trump Administration is trying to execute similar plans at agencies across the federal government,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s not in the PBR, it does not count\u201d <\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s budget request for fiscal year 2026, presented in May, sought to slash NASA\u2019s overall budget by nearly a quarter, its workforce by nearly a third, and its science funding by nearly half. The proposed cuts threaten to axe some of NASA\u2019s most ambitious missions, including the Mars Sample Return<\/a>, the New Horizons<\/a> deep space mission, and the Jupiter-orbiting Juno probe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While pending congressional appropriations bills largely oppose these cuts, the report finds evidence to suggest that NASA began implementing certain \u201cinstitutional changes\u201d to align with Trump\u2019s proposed budget as early as June 2025. The agency\u2019s Chief of Staff, Brian Hughes, has made it clear to NASA employees that \u201cthey are doing the [President\u2019s budget request]\u201d and \u201cif it\u2019s not in the PBR, it does not count,\u201d according to the report.<\/p>\n

The report also references comments Hughes made at an agency town hall in June, during which he attempted to justify carrying out the 2026 request even if the fiscal year starts under a continuing resolution at 2025 funding levels. \u201cIf we were to wait for all of the congressional process to unfold and get to final resolution to make any movements or do anything, it would probably be considered irresponsible,\u201d he said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The White House budget office has kept these actions quiet, according to the report. One NASA whistleblower told the committee\u2019s Democratic staff, \u201cIt\u2019s all under wraps. They\u2019re not doing town halls anymore. Nothing is written down,\u201d while another emphasized that \u201call avenues of communication have been shut down\u201d and they are \u201cnot allowed to ask questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

A \u201cculture of fear\u201d at NASA <\/p>\n

Over the last several months, the agency has lost nearly 4,000 employees<\/a> through the Trump administration\u2019s buyouts, reducing NASA\u2019s workforce by roughly 20%. On top of proposed budget cuts, these voluntary departures created \u201ca culture shift where employees are reluctant to make leadership aware of safety and security issues,\u201d the report argues.<\/p>\n

NASA whistleblowers told Democratic staffers on the Committee\u00a0that they have already seen safety impacts from the implementation of Trump\u2019s budget request, with one admitting they were \u201cvery concerned that we\u2019re going to see an astronaut death within a few years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another whistleblower said that compliance with the budget request appears to be driven by threats to high-level NASA leaders coming from the White House budget office or other political leadership. Agency employees, they said, \u201chave been told to get in line with the PBR or lose their job or position.\u201d Multiple whistleblowers said the general sentiment across the agency is, \u201cNo one is coming to save us.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the federal government stares down a likely government shutdown when the fiscal year ends on Wednesday, October 1, it\u2019s possible that the administration may seek even more aggressive changes to NASA\u2019s budget and staffing. Last week, the White House budget office sent a memo to agencies instructing them to prepare to lay off nonessential employees\u2014rather than furloughing them\u2014in the event of a shutdown, SpaceNews reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gizmodo reached out to NASA for comment, but the agency did not respond by the time of publication.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear where things could go from here. As of Tuesday morning, NASA has not issued<\/a> a plan for a government shutdown on October 1. Whatever happens, the next few days will prove decisive for the agency\u2019s future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With a government shutdown looming, Senate Democrats claim NASA is taking steps to implement the Trump administration\u2019s budget…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":267133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[49089,916,159,783,4352,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-267132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-government-shutdown","9":"tag-nasa","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space","12":"tag-trump-administration","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115294612309203552","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}