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On December 16th Russ Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced the Administration would be dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado. This institute is a critical asset to our nation and world providing support for weather and climate data and modeling. NCAR is also a critical partner to NASA, including our members and employees at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). The American Geophysical Union (AGU) has an action webpage where you can send a letter to your representative asking them to stand up for NCAR in upcoming appropriation bills: https://agu.quorum.us/campaign/151565/
On Monday, December 15th, members of the Maryland Congressional Delegation hosted informal hearings at the Capital focused on the status and future of NASA Goddard and space science in Maryland. They heard from Goddard Center leadership, and other Maryland and Goddard partners in space science. GESTA president Trysh Moton also spoke to the delegation during the event. You can read her opening statement and written testimony to the delegation here. Following these panel discussions, Congressional representatives hosted a press conference where they reiterated their strong support for NASA Goddard. You can view a video of the press conference at the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCal_TusnNE.
As labs, storage areas, and offices are packed up and moved, GESTA would like to remind employees that there are established procedures for reporting hazards, close calls, and mishaps. Every year during safety week we're shown examples of what can happen if safety procedures aren't followed. NASA Goddard carries a long tradition of learning from past mistakes so we don't repeat them. Reporting hazards, mishaps and close calls helps all of us to remain safer in our workplace and protect both people and hardware.
Amidst the chaos and frenzy of the building closure timelines enacted by management, a lot of equipment is being excessed very quickly. Below is a quick review of the proper process for excessing government equipment. Additionally, people in labs not impacted by building moves may be interested in the last section on Reclaiming Excessed Equipment to give a new home to equipment that other labs have been forced to excess.
Below we provide a step-by-step walk through of the NASA Office of Inspector General (OIG) Hotline page for reporting information and concerns related to crime, waste, fraud and abuse.
The information below is based on GESTA’s understanding of recent events as of this date. Since management has put very little information in writing, some of this information also comes directly from employees who have been personally involved in the building closures or who have received verbal information from management. We acknowledge the disruption or loss of these facilities represent decades of our colleagues’ work and may carry deep personal and institutional impacts. The brevity of these updates is not meant to reflect the depth of the impacts. We are also aware indirectly of impacts to multiple laboratories and buildings not mentioned here. If you have a (non-controlled) status update or information you would like to provide GESTA regarding the closures or moves of a building or lab for a future bulletin, please feel free to send it to our tipline email or share it via our Survey on this topic.
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