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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.
During the week of Sept 15th- 19th, our parent union IFPTE arranged several meetings between union members and Democratic and Republican Senators, Representatives, and their staff. Union members from IFPTE locals and AFGE locals from 4 different NASA centers took leave and traveled to Washington, DC to attend these meetings and actively represent members. In total, around 20 NASA union members attended 35 separate meetings.
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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