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Take action by reaching out to your Congressional leaders to encourage them to pass a bipartisan government funding bill which ends the current shutdown, while protecting Congress’s constitutional powers to set agency funding levels. As IFPTE notes on their action page: “a bipartisan CR needs to include legislative language protecting congressionally approved funding levels from being withheld by the Administration and prevent a unilateral implementation of the President’s budget contrary to Congressional intent. The Administration has already used unprecedented tactics such as "pocket rescissions" to withhold funds until they expire, effectively nullifying bipartisan funding agreements. Without legislative safeguards, any 2026 funding deal risks being ignored or overturned, which completely undermines the Constitutional authority of Congress to set and approve spending levels.”
You can send a letter directly via IFPTE’s action page: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-stop-the-shutdown-get-back-to-work-and-pass-a-bipartisan-funding-bill?source=direct_link&  On September 15, 2025, the NASA Needs Help group organized its third protest outside of NASA HQ. GESTA and IFPTE members attended the event, and Representative Suhas Subramanyam of VA addressed the crowd, as well as speakers from Stand Up For Science, GESTA, IFPTE, National Institute of Health, and the Planetary Society. Videos of the speakers are available on Instagram, @nasaneedshelp.
The event was covered by NBC Washington, Space.com, Government Executive, NASA Watch, Federal News Network, WUSA9, JWEasyTech, Ground News, DC Media Group, The Manila Times, and more! More photos from the event are below. GESTA works directly with Congressional appropriators to advocate for NASA and the NASA workforce on a regular basis. Earlier this spring, GESTA President Trysh Moton and GESTA Executive Vice President, Steve Hard collected a list of impacts due to potential cuts or cancellations to Goddard science programs from Goddard employees. With the help of Legislative Director Faraz Khan of IFPTE, this effort helped shape the Senate and House Appropriations Committee’s language for the 2026 Appropriations Bill. Over the last month IFPTE also worked with Senator Chris Van Hollen’s staff to provide input on a letter that Senator Van Hollen sent to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) regarding impoundment.
Last week, our parent union IFPTE also arranged for several active GESTA members to meet with the Senate Commerce Democrats’ oversight team. The purpose of these interviews was to collect information directly from Goddard employees on their experiences and the impacts to programs and/or the workforce due to the loss of personnel since the Deferred Resignation Program (DRP) has been implemented. The goals were to help bring attention to Congress on the gaps and issues that NASA’s pre-compliance with the President’s Budget Request has caused and on the importance of funding science and R&D. If you’d like to get involved in future efforts of this nature, we encourage you to join a GESTA committee (contact us to express your interest) and we encourage you to sign up for the Planetary Society’s Day of Action.  One action that came out of our brainstorming session with members of the Goddard community is a petition to “Save the NASA Goddard Visitor Center” that GESTA volunteers have just launched on Action Network:
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/save-the-nasa-goddard-visitor-center-2 Please sign and consider sharing this petition with your network in the local community who may want to see this valued connection to NASA Goddard remain open! GESTA received official notification from management that they plan to close the Greenbelt campus cafeterias, vending services, motor pool services, recreation center, and the Goddard visitor center on October 1st; the health unit sometime in October; and the gym on November 30th. GESTA has informed management of our intent to bargain on these closures. A huge thank you to everyone who came out to our Bargaining Brainstorm event on August 14th! During the event we were able to collect attendee’s concerns and suggestions for management and GESTA regarding the proposed closure of each facility.
 NASA supporters attend the "NASA Needs Help!" protest June 30th at NASA HQ. It seems that every time we gather for a town hall there's more bad news. Every branch meeting is a lot more "we don't know" than answers to our questions. My inbox had at least one "I took retirement/DRP" email in it every day last week. There's a lot to be stressed about, a lot to feel justifiably sad and angry about these days. I want to emphasize, though, that the union is in it with you for the long haul. Beyond the horizon of policies we can only guess at, GESTA and their parent union, IFPTE, will continue to lawyer up, show up, and do what they can in the situation at hand. Sometimes that can be invisible to the general workforce, so I wanted to emphasize some wins recently.
Though the recent reconciliation bill included some funding for specific NASA programs, NASA’s FY26 budget has not yet been decided by Congress. This means there is still hope to save NASA and our Goddard workforce from the destructive cuts in the President’s FY26 budget request (PBR).
Congressional Appropriation committees in the Senate and House are currently developing and voting on the first versions of NASA’s FY26 budget [1, 2]. Initial news from the Senate’s Appropriation committee hearing on July 10th indicated a strong majority of bipartisan committee support to keep NASA and NASA science funding flat at FY24 levels [3, 4]. The draft House Appropriations committee budget released on July 14th also called for a flat NASA budget though included a 18% (compared to 47% in the PBR) cut to NASA science [5]. Given the still strong bipartisan support for NASA and NASA Science in Congress, and the evidence our advocacy efforts are working, now more than ever is the time to continue to make our voices heard! Please take a moment (while off duty and on a personal device) to call or email one or more of the Senate or House Appropriation committee members. Ask them to save NASA and NASA Science! Below is a link to the list of committee members and links to their official websites where you can find office phone numbers and other contact methods: Senate Appropriations Committee members House Appropriations Committee members You can reference talking points from GESTA’s prior statement on the President’ budget proposal. Or reference talking points or scripts generated by the Planetary Society here. Please also share this action with allies who may live in any of the appropriation committee’s states or districts! A House budget reconciliation package has recently gone to the Senate for review. There were some wins for federal retirement benefits in the changes made from the initial House bill, but more changes are needed. Furthermore, the Senate's Homeland Security and Government Affairs committee made changes that worsened the impact to federal employees and unions. The current bill triples FERS contributions for new employees unless they become at-will employees, gives the president authority to unilaterally close agencies, taxes union dues, and enacts a $350 fee to exercise due process rights through the Merit Systems Protection Board. Our union IFPTE President Matthew Biggs released a statement, saying: “We call on all lawmakers in Congress to oppose these budget reconciliation provisions that attack the federal government and the federal workforce that serves the American public. This is not just about standing up for our members and our union, but for all Americans.” Just this week, the Senate parliamentarian ruled that these sections targeting federal employees must be removed from the current reconciliation bill since they constitute significant “non-budgetary policy changes”. This ruling is a big win for our rights, but it remains important to keep up pressure on Congress so these policies are not put forward in a different form.
IFPTE has set up a webpage on Action Network which provides an easy way for you to send a letter to your Senators asking them to reject these potential changes to federal employees benefits and rights, with a letter template you can edit: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-your-senators-stop-the-attack-on-federal-unions-civil-service-protections-and-government-services-and-agencies-in-budget-reconciliation-bill You can share this link with friends and family in other states, and ask them to contact their Senators too. As usual, these actions should be performed on personal time, using a personal device, and not at work. |
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