The shutdown is supposed to pause all non-essential work by government employees but while NASA usually furloughs 80 to 90 percent of its workers, Greenbelt’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) continues to hum with activity, including executing controversial directives critics say are illegal. Clearing of buildings on the campus and “divesting” of labs and equipment from those buildings is being carried out while most staff, media and the public are unable to access the facilities. Emails shared with the News Review and statements from GSFC federal workers show some are being recalled specifically to clean out buildings and participate in moves, as the center continues vacating buildings on the west side of its campus.
As reported in the September 24 issue, in late September Associate Center Director Raymond J. Rubilotta sent a memo directing “transformation efforts” to begin at Greenbelt and Wallops campuses, stating that unlike previous “large-scale Center reconfigurations” this one would take place over months, not years. Critics, including GSFC workers who spoke to the News Review, say NASA is preemptively and illegally implementing President Trump’s budget plan (passback) for the agency ‒ one with dramatic cuts facing bipartisan opposition in Congress (see the July 17 issue).
Critics argue these moves, which are being carried out with haste, are illegal themselves, as they are occurring without Congressional budget approval and will impact research and missions that do have Congressional support. “GSFC general staff have been kept as uninformed as possible,” says “Ben” (not his real name), an aerospace engineer who is a GSFC civil servant. “These lab/facility/equipment divestments are part of the ‘comply in advance’ with the President’s budget request and not only prevent GSFC from following budget appropriations law passed by Congress, they are seemingly designed to kneecap/destroy GSFC counter to the will of Congress,” Ben told the News Review. Another GSFC civil servant, whom we’ll call Rory, says divesting now means losing core capabilities, hindering future work and squandering millions of dollars of investment of taxpayer money over many decades. “The unilateral divestment … of these facilities, seemingly without consultation with project or subject matter expert stakeholders, effectively ends the ability of Goddard to perform in-house spaceflight communications system development, historically considered a core capability of the Center,” Rory said.
Work During Shutdown
Another concern of those objecting to the directives is that they are being carried out under cover of the shutdown and don’t constitute the kind of “essential” work they believe should be taking place during a shutdown. “Office moves are not necessary to protect life or property, so this is a pretty clear violation of the Anti-Deficiency Act,” Ben told the News Review. The Anti-Deficiency Act (ADA) prohibits federal agencies from expending funds before or in excess of their appropriation. It’s the law that mandates the government shut down when there’s no spending bill to fund its operations. Exceptions are authorized for protecting human life and property. Rory also says the events are highly unusual because during the shutdown the ADA typically forbids civil servants from performing work that isn’t necessary for the safety of human life and protection of property, expressly authorized by law or part of discharging the President’s Constitutional duties.
“GSFC management has ordered federal employees and contractors to move offices and labs during the government shutdown furlough,” says Rory. “Employees have been given less than a week to pack up entire buildings, under written threat of managers throwing away anything that is not accounted for. The equipment being moved likely adds up to tens of millions of dollars. Unique capabilities and lab equipment are being abandoned in place and expensive taxpayer-funded hardware is being mishandled. The moves are being conducted with needless haste and irresponsible disorganization,” states the civil servant.
In an internal September 30 email shared with the News Review, GSFC management said office moves were not approved as an excepted activity during a shutdown and the list of exempted activities was described as “lean.” Yet, Ben says employees in buildings 32 and 36 were ordered to move offices on October 1, the orderly shutdown day. On October 14, contractors and civil servants who worked in Buildings 19 and 20 were sent emails to their government accounts informing them to return and report by October 16 to pack and prepare for movers clearing the buildings the following week. The email stated that exempt status was approved to complete the moves from the building. “It is unclear how this rationale creates a scenario in which civil servants would be expected to be called from furlough status during a lapse in appropriations,” Rory said.
Equipment Loss
Rory says Building 19 contained eight labs, including the Goddard ElectroMagnetic Anechoic Chamber (GEMAC), “a unique Center capability that has consistently supported internal and external projects for over 50 years, which has been divested by the Center with no direct replacement for their capabilities.” The News Review spoke to sources who confirmed the donation of other valuable government equipment.
The written instructions sent October 16, a copy of which was reviewed by the News Review, stated that “By COB Monday 10/20, all items must be Excess (trash), Donate, or Swap. … All items not marked in labs by COB Monday 10/20 will be excessed.” “Tyler” (not his real name), a scientist who is still able to work on the Goddard campus, told the News Review the option to “swap” meant transferring the ownership to someone else on campus. That’s very difficult to do, however, because it involves finding someone with space available who is able to take the equipment, and currently many people are furloughed, he explained. “Through conversations with Center, ETD [Engineering and Technology Directorate] and Management Operations Directorate managers who stopped by throughout the day, on-site civil servants learned that the Center’s plan was allegedly to ‘excess everything’ (equivalent to throwing it out) and put the responsibility on employees for rescuing anything critical that was disposed of in the process,” says Rory. “This building alone houses likely tens of millions of dollars of government property, including one-of-a-kind spaceflight hardware, not to mention the decades-long investments to maintain state-of-the-art capabilities,” Rory said of Building 19. “Several building occupants were unavailable on such short notice (less than a week), with some on previously scheduled leave and even outside of the country. They will likely not be afforded an opportunity to prevent harm befalling items in their custody by other parties moving or disposing of their personal and government property without their knowledge or consent,” Rory added. Those losing their equipment because they have nowhere to move it to can only hope it lands at a university or other site where they might be able to use it in the future.
More Moves Coming
Ben was recalled during the shutdown to work on his project, but he has been told his building will be one of the next to be cleared. He has no instructions on where he or his specialized and expensive government equipment will move to. So far, he’s only received “vague verbal communications” from his direct supervisor, who says they are also in the dark, an assertion he believes.
“Wren” (not her real name) is a civil servant who is also currently in her Goddard office every day. She’s working on an exempted project that she was assigned to on October 1. Her prior project is in limbo, she says, as it’s zeroed out in the President’s budget proposal. Wren has also been told she has to move from her building. “I have been tentatively given an office in another building but told to not actually move all my stuff there because they’re scheduled to divest from it in November,” she told the News Review. When she visited that building the team there said their move out was imminent. In the meantime, one of her building’s floors has already been cleared. She’s been told boxes will be stored in her current office and that it’s been given to someone else ‒ whether it will be emptied or reassigned depends on which plan you’re reading, she said. “I’ve seen boxes with my office number on them coming from [building number withheld]” she told the News Review, but for now she’s working in her office and keeping the door locked. “I see dumpsters and moving trucks every day,” she said.
On September 29, NASA Goddard’s union, GESTA, expressed concern that the moves and disposal of documents and equipment were not being carried out according to NASA and GSFC policies. “These moves and closures go well beyond what agency leadership had approved in Goddard’s 2019 20-year master plan,” said GESTA. GESTA had been meeting with center management because building moves constitute a change in employee working conditions but Trump’s Executive Order 14343 terminated their collective bargaining rights and halted the negotiations.
President’s Right-sizing or Master Plan?
NASA leaders and GSFC News Chief Rob Garner previously said the transformation plan is guided by the 20-year master plan approved in 2019. While that plan does call for closing several aging buildings that are currently being vacated, it also called for constructing many others. Tyler says that while many buildings being cleared were slated for closure in the master plan, that wasn’t intended to happen before building new ones. Rather than an orderly, years-long master plan, those the News Review spoke with who were in the midst of moves say it is chaotic, and many allege it is based on political pressure. “The master plan calls for building before demolishing/divesting,” said Rory, “and only one of the proposed 12 new buildings has been constructed at this time.”
Future Speculation
A GSFC physicist and engineer, “Genevieve,” (not her real name) said, “I believe their goal is to close the center. The only vision anyone has cast for Goddard beyond 2025 is from the original leak of the budget passback … No one is casting an alternate narrative about Goddard’s continued existence that we can tie a fight for center capabilities to.” Others believe GSFC management are trying to survive and stave off the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) by capitulating to Trump’s vision even while Congress opposes it. “I believe that center management is filled with folks who think that by complying in advance it will work out for them,” a co-op scientist at GSFC told the News Review in September. A source we spoke to at NASA HQ was more staid: “The moves are absolutely disruptive and disturbing to those directly affected,” he said, but he cautioned against assuming motivation. The management could be accelerating the master plan to placate Office of Management Budget/DOGE and stave off more severe cuts. They might see the absence of union negotiations as a chance to expedite the already-planned center consolidation or they might be moving expediently because management itself has been decimated by Deferred Retirement Program departures, he suggested. He didn’t believe the ultimate plan is to close Goddard entirely. In fact, he believes the Science Mission Directorate plans to move over 200 people to Goddard in the new year, likely to the east side of campus, he said.
NASA Goddard News Chief Rob Garner has been furloughed and was unavailable to respond to the News Review’s questions or request to schedule access to GSFC.
The office of Senator Chris Van Hollen, leading Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Commerce-Justice-Science Subcommittee, which oversees funding for NASA, says the senator is pushing back against the Trump Administration’s efforts to undermine NASA and its missions. “The Trump Administration’s ongoing attacks on NASA Goddard and its workforce are endangering our efforts to explore space, deepen our understanding of Earth and spur technological advancements that make our economy stronger and our nation safer,” Van Hollen responded to the News Review. “I am in touch with Goddard staff and leadership as well as NASA headquarters regarding moves taking place on campus and am pushing to ensure that Goddard maintains its status as a world-leading research center and that the Trump Administration follows the law. I’ll keep fighting to retain the unique capabilities of NASA Goddard and to support the Center’s dedicated scientists, engineers and contractors – their work is vital to America’s scientific leadership and national security,” said Van Hollen in a statement to the News Review. He did not respond specifically to our questions about recalling federal workers to clear Goddard buildings during shutdown.
