NASA gets extension to submit layoff plans

WASHINGTON — NASA has received an extension to a White House directive to develop a plan for cutting the agency’s workforce, saying its current workforce has been too busy.

In a statement to reporters late March 14, NASA said the administration granted the agency a one-week extension on a plan to reorganize and reduce the agency’s workforce, citing several ongoing missions.

“In compliance with the President’s Workforce Optimization Initiative, NASA continues to work on our broader reorganization plan,” the agency stated. “Considering a variety of agency priorities this week, including the launch of SPHEREx and PUNCH, as well as preparations for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 launch Friday, and other agency missions, the agency received a one-week extension on our initial submission.”

A Feb. 11 executive order directed agencies to develop plans for “large-scale” layoffs. “Agency Heads shall promptly undertake preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force (RIFs), consistent with applicable law,” it stated, with initial plans for such layoffs due in 30 days, or March 13.

NASA and other agencies received additional direction for those plans, formally known as Agency RIF and Reorganization Plans, or ARRPs, in a Feb. 26 memo from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). The Phase 1 ARRPs require agencies to, among other topics, identify ways the agency will “achieve efficiencies” though hiring freezes, attrition and RIFs; jobs within the agency that are considered essential and should be exempted from RIFs; and even if “the agency or any of its subcomponents should be eliminated or consolidated.”

That would be followed by a Phase 2 ARRP, due April 14. NASA and other agencies are required to submit a “future-state organizational chart” reflecting consolidation and any plans to move offices from the greater Washington area to “less-costly parts of the country.” Agencies will also have to provide “competitive areas for subsequent large-scale RIFs.”

NASA has already started to lay off staff. The agency said March 10 that it was closing the Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy; the Office of the Chief Scientist; and ta branch of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Those closures resulted in laying off 23 people.

NASA Acting Administrator Janet Petro, in a memo announcing the layoffs, said the agency was working with OPM on “a thoughtful approach” to future layoffs. “While this will mean making difficult adjustments, we’re viewing this as an opportunity to reshape our workforce, ensuring we are doing what is statutorily required of us, while also providing American citizens with an efficient and effective agency,” she wrote.

The recent and proposed layoffs, along with rumors that the White House will propose cutting NASA’s science budget by as much as 50% in its fiscal year 2026 proposal to be released this spring, have alarmed many in the space community.

“Cutting NASA’s science budget by 50% would be a devastating misstep for the country,” Jim Green, former NASA chief scientist, said in a statement March 11 by Explore Mars, an advocacy group whose advisory board he chairs. He cited the research, inspiration and soft-power benefits of NASA’s science programs. “Reducing funding would cripple these efforts, ceding leadership in space to other nations and stifling scientific advancements that fuel economic growth.”

NASA officials have said they have no information about planned cuts of that magnitude. “That is complete speculation,” said Charles Webb, acting director of NASA’s planetary science division, of a 50% cut during a town hall session at the Lunar and Planetary Sciences Conference March 10.

“I have no indication that that is the truth,” he said, but acknowledged it could turn out to be. “I’m not going to spend time planning for that scenario when the likelihood of that is unknown to me.”

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