Connect with us

Politics

NASA workers, supporters protest deep funding, staffing cuts

Published

8 months ago

on

NASA Needs Help, a grassroots group made up of NASA employees and supporters, gathered peacefully outside the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Monday to protest funding and staffing cuts that threaten to decimate the nation’s premier scientific institution.

Protesters chanted, “When NASA is under attack, what do we do? Rise up, fight back!” as they criticized proposed budget cuts that could slash the agency’s funding by nearly 25% and President Donald Trump’s recent executive order that strips NASA workers of their collective bargaining rights.

“NASA is a tangible product of the greatest expression of the American dream. All of humanity has mused about reaching into the stars, and through decades of unified support by Congress, by presidents and the American public, we’ve done it. Dismantling this American institution is a travesty that no one voted for,” Colette Delawalla, executive director of Stand Up for Science, said at the protest.  

“As I stand here today, the White House is tearing apart the ecosystem that has resulted in a flourishing economy, global leadership in tech and science and progress, public health efforts that save millions of lives a year, national security that keeps us safe and a rich and vibrant intellectual community and a system where kids can grow up to want to be an astronaut,” she added. 

Andrew Tennenbaum, a NASA employee, outside of NASA’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Anastasia Obis/Federal News Network)

The Trump administration has aggressively pursued funding cuts and personnel layoffs across the country’s scientific and research agencies, and NASA has become one of the biggest casualties. The agency has lost nearly 4,000 employees through the deferred resignation program – about 20% of its workforce. Now, the Trump administration has issued an executive order cancelling collective bargaining rights at multiple federal agencies, including NASA, arguing that the roles those workers perform are tied to national security. 

“NASA is not an intelligence agency. NASA is a scientific agency. And NASA workers have been collectively bargaining for decades with no harm to national security. This is just a pretext for expanding Trump’s attack on the labor movement as a whole,” Monica Gorman, area vice president of Goddard Engineers, Scientists and Technicians Association, which represents employees at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said. 

The administration’s move to cancel collective bargaining agreements is the biggest rollback of labor protections NASA employees have ever faced — the executive order impacts thousands of NASA scientists, engineers and technicians and removes union rights that protected half of the agency’s workforce for decades.

Gorman argued stripping worker’s union rights will put NASA’s mission at risk since it would make the agency’s employees less likely to “speak up and bring up inconvenient concerns.” Gorman, who serves as an operations research analyst at NASA, said it’s important for her to be able to provide independent cost estimates for NASA missions without fear of retaliation. 

“A huge part of the reason that I have that independence and that my colleagues do is that as a union represented worker, I know that I am protected from unfair retaliation. I can’t get in trouble arbitrarily when I have union rights, and now the Trump administration says I don’t have union rights anymore, and that’s supposed to make us work more efficiently,” Gorman said.

“What we’ve learned from Apollo One, from Challenger and from Columbia, is that these catastrophes don’t happen out of nowhere. People see them coming. People have concerns, and if people don’t feel safe at work, if they don’t have the trust that they can speak up and bring those concerns forward without retaliation, then those concerns get buried,” she added.

Matthew Biggs, International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers president. (Photo by Anastasia Obis/Federal News Network)

NASA’s implementation of the executive order includes terminating collective bargaining agreements with labor unions, stopping NASA’s collection of union dues on behalf of labor unions, and evicting unions from their office space. Matthew Biggs, International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers president, said NASA will be added to an ongoing lawsuit challenging the termination of collective bargaining rights later this week.

“They’re not going to eliminate us. We are going to survive. We’re going to continue to represent our members. We’re going nowhere,” Biggs said.

“Why are they doing this? Number one, they want to silence the workforce. They want to silence the workers at NASA. And it’s also a lot easier to do [reduction in force] if there’s no labor unions there to challenge them,” he added.

Fighting continuing resolution

Many of the speakers also called on Congress to pass what they called a “fighting” continuing resolution that includes protections for scientific federal agencies.

The deadline to avoid a government shutdown is fast approaching – lawmakers have until midnight on Sept. 30 to avoid a lapse in government funding. House Republicans already unveiled legislation to keep the government open through Nov. 21, but it is unclear if they have the votes to pass the bill.

Mollie Manier, an employee at National Institutes of Health, said the group wants a stopgap funding bill that does not just “keep the lights on, but includes checks on this administration’s authoritarian overreach and protections for institutions and federal workers.”

Jayrick Hayes and Ann outside of NASA’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Anastasia Obis/Federal News Network)

“We’re urging Congress to insist on a fighting CR for the long-term benefit of this nation and we as federal workers are willing to suffer some short-term pain to get it,” Manier said.

“We do not want a shutdown, but we would rather have a shutdown than the continued dismantling of our institutions and destruction of our public goods that are causing harm to the American people,” she added.

The White House’s proposed budget for NASA is $18.8 billion for fiscal 2026 — a 24% decrease from approximately $24.8 billion in 2025. The proposal targets the agency’s entire satellite program, NASA’s fundamental science research, such as astrophysics,  planetary science and heliophysics, among others. Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at The Planetary Society, called the proposal “an extinction-level event.”

Meanwhile, the House and Senate appropriations committee have advanced their versions of the annual spending bill that funds NASA — the House voted to keep NASA’s budget the same as last year, while the Senate bill would give the agency a slight increase in spending.

If you would like to contact this reporter about recent changes in the federal government, please email anastasia.obis@federalnewsnetwork.com or reach out on Signal at (301) 830-2747.

The post NASA workers, supporters protest deep funding, staffing cuts first appeared on Federal News Network.

Related Topics:
Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Politics

PAYBACK TIME: US Department of War Planning Retribution for Failing Allies, Including Suspending Spain From the Alliance and ‘Reviewing’ UK’s Claims to the Falkland Islands

Published

4 weeks ago

on

April 25, 2026

By

A digital artwork featuring two men engaged in discussion, with a prominent image of Donald Trump in the background, creating a dramatic political atmosphere.A digital artwork featuring two men engaged in discussion, with a prominent image of Donald Trump in the background, creating a dramatic political atmosphere.Failing allies, leftist-Globalists Sanchez (Spain) and Starmer (UK) are about to taste retribution from Trump – Wiki Commons

Failing allies under pressure.

As we have been reporting here on TGP, US President Donald J. Trump is hardly the man to forgive and forget a slight or a betrayal.

And it’s been reported that Trump and his team have compiled a ‘naughty list’ of failing allies, and that some for of payback was expected against these countries.

And today, it arises that the Pentagon is exploring ways to punish NATO countries that failed to support the US during the Iran conflict – including drastic measures like suspending Spain from the alliance.

This was first reported by Reuters, but was picked up by a multitude of outlets, primarily in the UK, where there is widespread concern over the planned US ‘review’ of the British claim to the Falkland Islands.

Daily Mail reported:

“The policy options are detailed in an email expressing frustration at some allies’ perceived reluctance or refusal to grant Washington access, basing and overflight (ABO) rights for the Iran war. The email stated that ABO is ‘just the absolute baseline for NATO,’ according to the official, who added that the options were circulating at high levels in the Pentagon.

The memo also includes an option to consider reassessing US diplomatic support for longstanding European ‘imperial possessions,’ such as the Falkland Islands near Argentina.”

Needless to say, the response by the Euro-Globalists was immediate.

On the one hand, NATO states there is no provision to oust Spain, while the UK reaffirms its sovereignty over the South American Islands.

Read more:

NATO and the Bar Fight: A Bar Tab Europe Expects America To Pay Forever

The post PAYBACK TIME: US Department of War Planning Retribution for Failing Allies, Including Suspending Spain From the Alliance and ‘Reviewing’ UK’s Claims to the Falkland Islands appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Continue Reading

Politics

AXIS OF ECONOMIC LOSERS: Japan and Germany’s Socialist “Stakeholder” Takeover Turned Economic Superpowers Into Stagnant Ghost Towns – And the Left Wants This Poison for America

Published

4 weeks ago

on

April 25, 2026

By

Image depicting tattered flags of Germany and Japan with the text "The Axis of Losers," symbolizing the Axis Powers of World War II.Image depicting tattered flags of Germany and Japan with the text "The Axis of Losers," symbolizing the Axis Powers of World War II.Japan and Germany are dying from the same disease: socialism.

Back in the late 1980s and early ’90s, the so-called “experts,” the mainstream media, and every smug Ivy League economist couldn’t stop drooling over Japan. “Japan as Number One!” they screamed. Books flew off the shelves. Newsweek and Time covers warned of an “economic Pearl Harbor.”

Paul Harvey wailed about Japan buying up America with our own money. Paul Kennedy’s bestseller The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers basically coronated the Land of the Rising Sun as the next global hegemon.

The keiretsu system, the MITI bureaucrats, the lifetime employment model — it was all supposed to be the future. America was finished. The Japanese were going to own us.

Fast-forward to 2025-2026. Japan is a cautionary tale on life support. GDP per capita (PPP) hovers around a pathetic $55,000–$56,000 — crushed by America’s nearly $94,000. After taxes and cost of living? It’s even worse. The “Lost Decades” aren’t a glitch — they’re the feature. Zombie companies, endless stagnation, and a demographic death spiral made infinitely worse by policies that treat businesses like government welfare offices rather than wealth-creation machines.

The mainstream press will blame everything except the real culprit: the deliberate socialization of the corporation.

Keiretsu

In Japan, it’s the infamous keiretsu system — giant corporate clans glued together by cross-shareholdings and a house bank that plays mommy to every failing division. Lifetime employment. Seniority-based pay and promotions instead of merit. Company unions that treat every layoff like a war crime. The goal isn’t profit — heaven forbid — it’s “harmony” and keeping everyone employed forever. Result? Total paralysis. You can’t fire the dead weight. You can’t reallocate capital to what actually works. You can’t innovate like a maniac because revolution is “disruptive.”

When the 1990s bubble popped, they didn’t clean house — they dragged toxic debt around like a ball and chain for decades.

And don’t look now, but Germany — once the envy of Europe — is right there with them in the loser’s club. Years of zero or outright negative growth. Factories shuttering. The proud German export machine is coughing up blood. The vaunted “Rhine model” has turned into a slow-motion industrial suicide.

Mitbestimmung

Because Germany took the socialization even further with the notorious Mitbestimmung — “co-determination.” In big companies, workers and union reps literally occupy half the seats on the supervisory board. They get veto power over layoffs, plant closings, relocations, and major restructurings. It’s not capitalism anymore — it’s corporate communism with better engineering. The boardroom isn’t deciding how to crush competitors and reward shareholders; it’s negotiating how to protect today’s insiders at the expense of tomorrow’s growth.

Add in the deranged Energiewende — the green energy fantasy that tripled electricity costs — and you have the perfect storm. German industry is literally powering down while the rest of the world races ahead.

BMW/Tesla

Want proof? Look at BMW versus Tesla. BMW sells about 2.5 million vehicles a year. Tesla sells around 1.5 million. BMW’s market cap? A measly ~$55 billion. Tesla’s? Over twenty times higher. One company is run by visionaries who embrace the future and reward risk-takers. The other is run like a German labor ministry with a side hustle in cars.

This is what happens when you let “stakeholders” — code for unions, bureaucrats, and professional grievance-mongers — hijack the boardroom. The enterprise stops being a profit machine that lifts everyone through growth and becomes a social-work project designed to protect yesterday’s workers at the expense of tomorrow’s entrepreneurs, young people, and innovators.

It’s the exact same philosophy the American left has been trying to smuggle into U.S. boardrooms for years: ESG scores, “stakeholder capitalism,” DEI mandates, union power grabs, and the constant war on shareholders. They call it compassionate. It’s actually economic castration. Joseph Schumpeter’s “creative destruction” — the engine of real progress — gets sacrificed on the altar of Karl Marx’s class warfare dressed up in a suit and tie.

America’s model is raw, unapologetic, and brutally effective: The company exists to make money for its owners. Management executes or gets fired. You restructure, you pivot, you kill failing divisions without crying about “humanity.” It looks ugly to the European and Japanese salon socialists. It also creates the iPhones, the SpaceX rockets, the shale revolution, and the stock market that funds retirements for millions.

The Axis of Losers

Japan and Germany didn’t fail because of demographics or one bad energy policy. They failed because they turned their greatest companies into paralyzed extensions of the welfare state. The “Axis of Losers” chose preservation over progress — and they’re paying for it in lost decades and lost futures.

America still has a choice. We can reject this European-Japanese corporate socialism, tell the unions and the stakeholder grifters to pound sand, and keep rewarding the risk-takers and wealth-creators who actually build the future.

Or we can follow the Axis of Losers straight into the economic graveyard. The choice should be obvious — but the radical left never learns. They just rebrand failure as “equity” and keep selling the same poison. Don’t let them.

The post AXIS OF ECONOMIC LOSERS: Japan and Germany’s Socialist “Stakeholder” Takeover Turned Economic Superpowers Into Stagnant Ghost Towns – And the Left Wants This Poison for America appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Continue Reading

Politics

WATCH: Mother of Feral NYC Teen Who Body-Slammed and Stomped 15-Year-Old Girl’s Head DEFENDS Violent Son, Claims Victim ‘Bullied’ Him After She Refused to Give Him Her Phone Number

Published

4 weeks ago

on

April 25, 2026

By

Woman speaking to the media in a hallway while a man is seen attacking another person on the street in a separate scene.

Woman speaking to the media in a hallway while a man is seen attacking another person on the street in a separate scene.

A horrifying video from New York has sparked nationwide outrage after a 14-year-old boy was caught on camera brutally body-slamming a 15-year-old girl to the concrete and then stomping on her head, all because she refused to give him her phone number.

Now, the boy’s mother is publicly defending her son, claiming the victim was “bullying” him and that his savage and animalistic attack was somehow justified because he is a “humble” Christian.

The shocking attack occurred around 3:30 p.m. on Monday at the corner of East 107th Street and Third Avenue in East Harlem, just after school let out.

The 15-year-old girl, a ninth-grade student-athlete at East Harlem Scholars Academy Charter School heading to squash practice, was confronted by the 14-year-old masked suspect, who had reportedly been harassing her for weeks.

In the disturbing footage, the girl is seen trying to walk away and yelling, “Get the f–k away from me.”

The boy follows her, grabs her from behind, lifts her off the ground, slams her to the pavement, and then stomps directly on her head.

His friends can be heard laughing and egging him on as the girl lies motionless on the ground.

WATCH (VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED):

The girl suffered a concussion and was rushed to Harlem Hospital.

The 14-year-old suspect was arrested on Wednesday and appeared in Manhattan Family Court, where he was ordered held in custody by the Division of Youth and Family Justice.

Because both parties are minors, his name has not been publicly released.

In an interview captured outside the courthouse, the boy’s mother, Selma Allen, issued a wild defense of her violent son.

WATCH:

Allen claimed the 15-year-old girl had been bullying him in school, sending messages, and even pushing him down, and that this somehow justified the vicious attack.

“She was being a bully to him, that’s it,” Allen told reporters.

“He’s been complaining about her. I bring it to the principal’s attention but he don’t address it. The way my son is being bullied, he doesn’t want to go to school.”

She claimed her son is a “quiet” boy who “doesn’t provoke nobody,” and described him as a “humble Christian.”

“He don’t provoke nobody. But if you provoke him, he will lash out.”

Allen insisted her son had proof on WhatsApp and Instagram and repeatedly shifted blame onto the victim while downplaying the savage stomp on the girl’s head.

None of the reporters asked the obvious question: if the girl was truly bullying him, why was he aggressively demanding her phone number and following her?

The victim’s mother, Lucinda Arroyo, spoke out Thursday in an interview with the New York Post. She said her daughter had been dealing with weeks of harassment from the boy and said it was a “miracle” her daughter survived.

“She’s very upset that her whole life has been completely flipped upside down right now,” Arroyo said. “She’s known him as someone who’s bad news for a while.”

“This is not even bullying, this is outright assault — and he could have killed her,” she asserted.

Her daughter was left with a concussion, bleeding, a potential brain injury, crushing headaches and a twisted neck, and will require ongoing physical therapy.

The post WATCH: Mother of Feral NYC Teen Who Body-Slammed and Stomped 15-Year-Old Girl’s Head DEFENDS Violent Son, Claims Victim ‘Bullied’ Him After She Refused to Give Him Her Phone Number appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Continue Reading

Trending