With the government’s new fiscal year starting Oct. 1, union leaders from AFGE Locals 2284 and 1858 visited Capitol Hill the week of Sept. 15 to urge lawmakers to protect NASA’s funding and workforce from deep White House-proposed budget cuts. They explained how the Trump administration’s Aug. 28 anti-union executive order excluding NASA employees from collective bargaining not only hurts federal workers but also threatens NASA’s ability to operate efficiently by undermining the longstanding labor-management partnership.
AFGE’s local union leaders were joined by fellow NASA local union leaders from the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) to make sure members of Congress know that NASA has repeatedly told its workforce that the White House Office of Management and Budget unilaterally intends to impose historic cuts on NASA that Congress has not approved. The administration’s proposed fiscal 2026 budget cuts NASA’s overall funding by 24% – including a 47% cut to science funding – and calls for slashing the NASA workforce by 35%. This would take NASA back to a budget and a workforce size that it hasn’t seen since 1961.
Union representatives emphasized that Congress must exercise its constitutional “power of the purse” and make clear through short-term funding measures that it does not support these cuts. Both the House and Senate are working to pass appropriations bills for the next fiscal year that reject the White House’s proposed reductions. Conversations between AFGE leaders and Congressional staff confirm bipartisan backing for sustaining NASA’s science missions, preserving its technical workforce, and blocking harmful OMB cuts.
Legislation introduced in the House and Senate that would keep the government open and funded through Oct. 31 under a continuing resolution also explicitly protects NASA funding from being cut by OMB.
Union leaders also reminded lawmakers and their staff that OMB’s intent to ignore Congress and slash the budget will also leave NASA without the workforce, technical expertise, and resources needed to achieve President Trump’s goal of returning Americans to the moon in this decade and will cost the U.S. its global leadership in aerospace and science. The effect of cutting NASA’s budget would ripple through every state, as NASA’s private sector and higher education partners would lose federal contracts and funding.
As a result of the constant drumbeat from NASA leadership that the proposed budget cuts will be put in place after Oct., the world’s leading aerospace agency has lost over 4,000 scientists, engineers, technicians, and administrative staff through the deferred resignation program, and another 500 have retired in the last few months. Union leaders explained how NASA employees are doing all they can to keep the agency functional and successful, but they need Congress to do their part.
Union leaders met with multiple members of Congress, including Reps. Donald Norcross of New Jersey, Sylvia Garcia of Texas, George Whitesides of California, and Glenn Ivey of Maryland. Later the same week, Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland sent a letter to President Trump denouncing the move to strip NASA workers of their collective bargaining rights.
“I urge you to immediately rescind this illegal executive order,” Van Hollen wrote. “Every day that it remains in place, federal workers are left vulnerable to political retribution, undermining their ability to do their jobs effectively on behalf of the American people.”
IFPTE Legislative Director Faraz Kahn contributed to this story.
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