|
Congressional advocacy has been an increasingly necessary and powerful tool over the last 18 months given the direct attacks on federal agencies and federal employees from the Administration. We want to highlight one streamlined Congressional whistleblowing avenue for federal employee issues and federal workers. The Federal Workforce Caucus, led by Representative James R. Walkinshaw (VA-11), Representative Steny Hoyer (MD-05), and Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) are a caucus of congressional members with a strong interest in fighting for federal employee issues. Their caucus has setup up a streamlined portal for receiving whistleblower concerns which can be accessed at the link on their website.
Members of GESTA/IFTPE Local 29 participated in IFTPE’s 2026 Legislative Advocacy Conference at the Hilton Capitol Hill in Washington DC February 9th-12th. While GESTA representation included seasoned GESTA leadership, it also included first-time participants. The summary below provides the perspective of one first-time participant during the week. GESTA also organized another very successful day of Congressional visits in May, bringing early career NASA employees to visit with Congressional staff members, and highlighting the issues impacting the NASA early career and term employee workforce and NASA workforce pipelines. If you have an interest in joining GESTA during future Congressional advocacy efforts please contact us.
An ongoing bipartisan congressionally-mandated National Academies (NASEM) Study is collecting information and will report out their findings and recommendations for strengthening Goddard’s technical and scientific capabilities. In July, the study committee contacted GESTA with a request that our union participate directly in the study by providing a public response to their questions. You can read GESTA’s public written response to the committee here. GESTA President Trysh Moton, Secretary Alyssa Barlis and Area Vice President Margaret Samuels also spoke in person at the National Academies in Washington, DC on August 4th, and you can view the recording of the committee meeting via the NASEM committee website. A note that the other open sessions of the NASEM committee meetings, including those with testimony by Center management are also publicly viewable from the study webpage. In responding to the committee’s questions, GESTA pulled from the broad perspectives and experiences we have heard from our members and Goddard’s workforce over the last year and half. We want to give a big thank you to the Goddard community and members who have courageously provided this feedback which allowed us to provide the committee with a clearer view of the recent impacts to Goddard’s workforce and facilities, and of our community's recommendations for rebuilding Goddard’s future.
On April 3rd, the Administration released the 2027 President’s “skinny” budget, and several days later NASA released the full NASA FY27 Presidential budget request (PBR). You can download and read the budget request from NASA’s website. The FY27 budget request provides an eerie feeling of déjà vu. Like the FY26 PBR it again proposes existential cuts to NASA and to NASA’s Science budget specifically.
GESTA membership recently passed a resolution to condemn the killing of Alex Pretti, a fellow federal employee and federal union member, by federal immigration agents. You can read the GESTA resolution text here. As noted, copies of this resolution are in the process of being sent to the international leadership of IFPTE, members of Congress representing GESTA districts, other stakeholders, and the press
On January 14th GESTA members and allies, as well as IFPTE leadership, rallied on Capitol Hill with other federal union members in support of the The Protect American Workforce Act (PAWA).
Following months of diligent advocacy by GESTA members and tens of thousands of citizens across the country, Congress passed, and the President signed into law a NASA budget that funds the agency from February 1st through September 30th, 2026. A Planetary Society article gives a detailed overview of the topline funding as well as a mission-by-mission comparison between the budget as passed and the FY26 President’s Budget Request (PBR). With the exception of Mars Sample Return, all missions that were threatened with premature termination under the PBR received funding in the budget as passed. Furthermore, the Safety, Security, and Mission Services (SSMS) budget received nearly-flat funding ($3B in FY26, as compared to $3.1B in FY24 and FY25). SSMS funds the Center Engineering, Safety, and Operations (CESO) budget, which includes institutional and technical capabilities, facilities, and technical authority functions at Goddard Space Flight Center.
We want to highlight several GSFC-specific points included in the budget that will be of interest to readers: 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.
|
GESTA IFPTE
|
RSS Feed
