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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& 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.
Term Employee Right Preserved Thanks to the efforts of AVP Matt Joplin and the Term, Pathways, and Probationary Employees Committee led by Margaret Samuels, a Goddard term employee whose term was expiring pushed back on HR and will be getting their severance pay. Although in most cases term employees do not receive severance pay, this employee came directly from a prior permanent federal service position which entitled them to severance. If any term employees find themselves in a similar situation please reach out to GESTA for advice or representation. This type of representative action does not rely on management upholding our Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Engineering Directorate Management Thwarted in Preventing Outside Employment GESTA was recently able to assist members in getting outside employment approvals. As one member told us, “The union is a massive help when the issue is just one holdout in management. I'd been stonewalled getting my outside employment form signed for months because someone in ETD management didn't want to sign. Within a week of the union applying pressure, everyone who was requesting outside employment had our forms signed, and the manager… was taken out of the process. Even without a CBA, I think we could help each other in a similar situation.” GESTA Members Speak with Congress Six GESTA members spoke with Congressional staffers about the impacts of the DRP at Goddard and the importance of continued funding. We’re very proud of our members for volunteering their time and sharing their perspectives at this event. GESTA members will also attend a NASA-wide legislative advocacy week Sept 15-19th, where union delegates from NASA centers across the nation will visit with staffers in Washington, DC. Both of these events were organized by our parent union IFPTE. More details available here. These Congressional advocacy actions and rights are also entirely independent of our CBA. 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. There has been some confusion recently about whether the Administration can legally implement the president’s FY26 budget request in FY25 ahead of the new fiscal year, or in FY26 regardless of the details of the federal budget or continuing resolution that Congress passes for FY26. The answer is it would be unconstitutional for the Administration to do so and constitute impoundment. The Administration must spend the funds that Congress appropriates and that the President signs into law. As is explained in the two references shared below this is based on the separate duties established for the three separate branches of our government by the US Constitution.
"FAQs on Impoundment: Presidential Actions Are Constrained by Long-Standing Constitutional Restrictions" "Trump Rescission Proposal Builds on Illegal Impoundments, Would Undermine Future Funding Deals" It is true there is a mechanism in the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 through which the Administration can temporarily pause spending for up to 45 days and request a rescission of specific funds from Congress following specific procedures. However, after that 45-day window is up, if Congress does not approve the rescission of those funds, the Administration must release and spend the funds as Congress has legislated. Also, Congress does specifically appropriate NASA funds down the level of specific programs areas, see for example: “NASA Appropriations and Authorizations: At a Glance” And this situation does not change in the case of a continuing resolution, where Congress still will specify what the continuing funding rate levels will be across those programs, see: “Continuing Resolutions: Overview of Components and Practices"  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! 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!
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