Union leaders sound the alarm on NASA staffing, proposed budget cuts

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Union leaders representing NASA employees and NASA workers gathered outside the National Air and Space Museum Tuesday, sounding the alarm against the Trump Administration’s staffing levels for the space agency and proposed 2026 budget cuts.

The gathering was organized by the International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers and the American Federation of Government Employees.

IFPTE’s president says roughly 4,000 NASA employees, about a quarter of the agency’s workforce, have left since President Donald Trump took office in January, amid downsizing efforts and a voluntary resignation program encouraging workers to exit.

“They want even more of these brilliant minds to leave. The most disturbing thing of this is at some point this becomes irreversible. It becomes irreversible. Why would anyone want to go work at NASA anymore, given the way that these workers are being treated by this administration?” said Matthew Biggs, International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers president.

The Trump administration is proposing about a 25 percent cut to the agency’s budget for 2026, with big cuts aimed at the Science Mission Directorate conducting NASA’s research work.

“If you just look at the money spent on science, they want to cut the science budget by 47 percent,” Biggs said. 

Tuesday marked the 67th anniversary since legislation creating NASA was signed into law by then-President Dwight Eisenhower.