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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. Congress will ultimately weigh in on whether the devastating cuts to NASA in the President’s budget request become a reality. The Planetary Society has updated their main advocacy page with ways you can take action to “Save NASA” and NASA Space Science: https://www.planetary.org/save-nasa-science. This includes a petition to Congressional leaders (open to people to sign worldwide), a form that will pre-populate and send a message to your representatives, another form that will provide a script and phone numbers to call your representatives, and resources for illustrating the impacts of the proposed cuts. You can even personalize your message or call with some excerpts from GESTA’s Statement below. We encourage you to take these actions and also to share these resources with colleagues, friends and family, to help spread the word!
President Trump claims to support American leadership in space, but the President’s Budget Request (PBR) would do the opposite. The proposed NASA budget cuts are an existential threat to the exploration, scientific research, and technology development NASA is uniquely known for. The budget request would shrink NASA’s budget to the lowest levels since 1961, prior to the start of the Apollo program. It threatens our nation’s leadership in Space and Earth Sciences, requesting ~50% cuts to those programs (50% to Earth Sciences, 30% to Planetary Science, 66% to Astrophysics and 46% to Heliophysics).
As many are aware, union members and colleagues at the Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS) were forced out of their current office space on May 31st, with no alternative office space yet identified. GESTA has been talking to employees at GISS in New York and meeting with management officials at Goddard to attempt to alleviate the impacts of the forced move out of the GISS building.
The Fiscal Year 2026 “skinny” budget proposal was released by the Trump Administration last Friday. The administration's proposal calls for a 24% reduction to NASA’s total budget and absolutely devastating cuts to Space Science (-44%), Earth Science (-53%), Aeronautics (-37%) and Space Technology (-48%). The budget would also eliminate all STEM educational programs and severely restrict funding to “IT services, NASA Center operations, facility maintenance, construction and environmental compliance activities”. These proposed cuts have already drawn an extremely negative reaction from the Space community and some political leaders. We encourage you to make your voice heard as well! The Planetary Society had compiled an Advocacy Action Center Webpage that streamlines (providing a template script and contact information) ways to call and write your Congressional representatives to advocate for NASA funding. A reminder to please do so on your personal time, on a personal device, in accordance with the Hatch Act.
 We recently learned that the termination of the lease for our employees at the NASA Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS) is scheduled for May 31, 2025, with no replacement office yet identified. GISS is a laboratory within the Earth Sciences Division of Goddard Space Flight Center, affiliated with Columbia University, in New York City. GISS is a leading center for Earth and planetary science research. Our GISS employees produce a suite of datasets fundamental to the understanding of our planet Earth and their work has aided in the prediction of storms, including Hurricane Sandy, California wildfires, and tornadoes and tsunamis affecting the entire globe. We urgently ask if you may write or call the political leaders in New York State, as well as your own congressional representatives, and ask them to support GISS. Please do so on your personal time, on a personal device in accordance with the Hatch Act. To help you advocate, templates with talking points and the representatives' contact information, can be found here.
By Steven Hard, GESTA Executive Vice-President  On February 11, 2025 nearly 100 IFPTE members, including GESTA, marched on Capitol Hill with 2,000 other federal employees, trade Unionists and the public to protest the illegal actions of the Trump Administration. GESTA President, Tryshanda (Trysh) Moton, and I both attended the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) 2025 Legislative Advocacy Conference held February 10-14, 2025 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Nearly 100 IFPTE Local leaders and members from across the United States and across multiple sectors, came together to take their concerns to our elected lawmakers. We urged Congress to “do their job”, by exercising their authority as the legislative branch to block the unconstitutional actions of the Trump Administration. While we prioritized urging Congress to block the frenzy of illegal actions being taken by the Administration (you can read more about the details of GESTA's conversations with individual lawmakers in my prior Legislative Week blog post), GESTA and IFPTE members also provided lawmakers with IFPTE’s point papers listing all of our legislative priorities. GESTA also had the opportunity to hear from multiple speakers during the conference, and participated in a march and rally on Capitol Hill.
By Steven Hard, GESTA Executive Vice-President  GESTA President Tryshanda Moton (second from right) and Executive Vice President Steven Hard (right) met with Senator Mark Kelly (center) during Legislative Advocacy Week 2025. GESTA President Tryshanda (Trysh) Moton and I met with several lawmakers and their staff on Capital Hill as part of IFPTE’s Legislative Advocacy Week, Wednesday February 12th - Thursday February 13th, 2025. A full recap of these busy two days and our conversations with lawmakers and staff is below.
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