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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).
Federal employee unions in partnership with local governments and Democracy Forward won a significant ruling in a lawsuit against the current Reductions In Force (RIFs) actions that are taking place across federal agencies. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ruled on May 22nd in a preliminary injunction that “agencies may not conduct large-scale executive branch reorganization without partnering with Congress”. The ruling temporarily stops 21 federal agencies from implementing any further RIF actions and from separating those who may have already received RIF notice and are in administrative leave status. Although NASA is not one of the agencies listed in the lawsuit, the legal grounds appear to also apply to any NASA RIF implemented without sufficient involvement from Congress. The Trump administration appealed this preliminary ruling but that appeal was denied. You can read the press-releases from Democracy Forward, the non-profit leading the lawsuit with additional details and links to the lawsuit and ruling documents: ICYMI: Judge Blocks Trump’s Unlawful Dismantling of Government Agencies Judge Deals Significant Blow to Unconstitutional Reorganization of Federal Government Appeals Court Allows Block On Administrations Unlawful Reorganization of the Federal Government to Continue On April 23rd, the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM) published a proposal for a new regulation titled “Improving Performance, Accountability and Responsiveness in the Civil Service” in the Federal Register. This regulation would revive a category of federal employees called “Schedule F” (first introduced in 2020 by the Trump administration and subsequently repealed under the prior Biden administration), under a new name, “Schedule Policy / Career.” This new category or “schedule” of federal workers would not have civil service job protections, making them effectively at-will employees who could be easily fired by the Trump administration. The new regulation would also involuntarily move tens of thousands (or more) current federal employees into this new "Schedule P/C," category thus stripping current civil servants of their job protections. OPM has provided a 30-day comment window before the regulation is finalized – and the comment deadline has been extended to this Saturday June 7. We encourage individuals to submit comments here, IFPTE has provided a template for comments. Additional information on this new rule is also available here from Democracy Forward.
According to US Code Title V Part III, Subpart D Chapter 55 Subchapter IX, Severance Pay is an entitlement for some employees upon involuntary separation from their government position which may occur during a Reduction in Force (RIF). The question is who qualifies and how much severance pay are they entitled to? Will I be entitled to severance pay if I do not take a potential second Deferred Resignation Program (DRP), Voluntary Early Retirement (VERA), or a Voluntary Separation Incentive Pay (VSIP) offer and then I get “RIFed”?
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.
We were all informed that, starting May 5th, Goddard would be sending badge swipe data to The Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The OMB demand for badge swipe data is based on the USE-IT Act, which was passed by the previous Congress and administration. Its purpose is to identify federal facilities in the largest agencies with low occupancy rates.
 We'd like to make our GESTA members aware of a free legal resource for federal employees. The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) has recently partnered with Democracy Forward, We The Action, Civil Service Strong, and other organizations to launch Rise Up: Federal Workers Legal Defense Network. Their purpose is to connect federal workers to a network of thousands of lawyers who can provide free legal support. GESTA members are encouraged to visit workerslegaldefense.org to connect with a lawyer or to view their compilation of legal resources on timely topics such as Reduction in Forces (RIFs) and whistleblower protections.
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