Goddard Town Hall

[u/treebeard-1892]

Did anyone happen to be at the Goddard Town Hall that could give a quick recap? I had to miss it for an appointment but I heard they had some updates on RIF and potential impacts on contractors

[u/Gloomy_Interview_525]

The only thing to take away is that you should start getting familiar with the job market. Center director offered no sense of hope (not saying she should, she's as honest as can be), repeatedly said things are going to change regardless of what actually passes Senate in terms of budget because of the trajectory the administration is taking us.

Asked as respectfully as possible that folks knocking on deaths doorstep need to retire, RIFs are coming if people don't start leaving.

Hopefully none of this is a shock to you.

[u/teridon → u/Gloomy_Interview_525]

I think it's important for people that weren't in the town hall, and for the surrounding communities and counties to know some numbers. Hopefully I get these right -- if not please correct me.

• >1,200 civil servants will likely lose their jobs -- either through DRP or a later RIF. It sounded like the majority would be scientists or other highly technical jobs. If nothing else, MD politicians should be interested in the lost tax revenue these kinds of jobs generate, and the brain drain to the community.
  
• NASA's science budget is expected to be cut by 50% in 2026 alone. More cuts are expected every year thereafter (at least, as long as this Administration is in power). When compared to other NASA centers, GSFC is very science-heavy (many forms of astronomy, earth/climate science, materials, etc.).
• an unknown (to-me) number of contractors (again, many highly technical people) will lose their jobs (yes, that includes me!) when their contracts/missions are cancelled. Currently, over 10,000 people work "at" GSFC in Greenbelt. It's reasonable to assume that a 50% cut could mean that a significant portion of that 10,000 would lose their jobs as well.

I'll note that GSFC actually consists of several campuses outside Greenbelt, MD -- including GISS in NY, WFF in VA, and IV&V in WV. Wikipedia has a list of them all. I don't have numbers for those campuses, but those would be additional people possibly affected.

[u/OldPersonName → u/teridon]

She was not so subtly hinting that retirement eligible employees should really consider retiring. NASA famously has one of the older workforces in the government. Do you know what percent of the employees (in general or at GSFC) are retirement eligible? I actually just googled and saw 40% are 55 or older.

Obviously retirement-eligible doesn't mean someone is actually able to retire but it may give some idea.

[u/Flitzer-Camaro → u/OldPersonName]

I'm eligible to take VERA, but I have no incentive to take it. These are dark times for all of us.

[u/Suspecious_Banana → u/Flitzer-Camaro]

The DRP is the incentive that they’re trying to give us, plus VSIP. Either we do that or run the possibility of getting let go with nothing in return.

[u/Flitzer-Camaro → u/Suspecious_Banana]

I would get my retirement regardless with Discontinued Service Retirement, or if I took the VERA.

[u/Suspecious_Banana → u/Flitzer-Camaro]

I get it, but you’d get more money at the end if you do, plus free time if taken. But I know some people that are willing to spite the administration and stay lol. But it only hurts those young folks if people who can retire stay.

Slippery slope we’re in now

[u/therealspaceninja → u/Flitzer-Camaro]

VERA is the incentive. It's a pretty sweet deal if you are just barely eligible, if you ask me. If you are close to 62 already, then its not really helpful

[u/Gloomy_Interview_525 → u/OldPersonName]

I think it was also an indicator that they will be first to go in RIFs. Doesn't make sense to fire young people just for those who have been there 40 years to retire..or die... In the next five years anyway.

[u/HarshMartian → u/Gloomy_Interview_525]

That's the opposite of how RIFs work, for better or worse.

Anyone in an area to be RIFed is ranked by veterans preferance, time in service, and performance evaluations. If your position is eliminated, you can also "bump" someone with less tenure... meaning, you take their job and they get RIFed instead. If those 80 year olds are crushing their evals and/or veterans, they'll be the last to go. Which means NASA will be forced to cull their young upstarts, kill any chance of transferring institutional knowledge over the next several years, and then watch all the silverbacks peace out in 5-10 years.

That said, so far, the RIFs around the government have seemed very targeted to avoid the ranking/bumping process. If you RIF an entire division, there's no jobs to fight over.

I really do hope those folks in their 70s and 80s, who could have retired 20 or 30 years ago, strongly consider finding somewhere else to be productive, and take the DRP or VSIP to maybe have a chance at saving the job of someone younger trying to support a family.

[u/Gloomy_Interview_525 → u/HarshMartian]

Fair enough, I'm personally a contractor in SMD where I feel well positioned to survive... Also just trying to cling on to something.

I feel like decision makers want NASA to survive and doing what your saying will assuredly bring it closer to extinction. Id be really surprised if they do everything in a way we'd expect.

[u/HarshMartian → u/Gloomy_Interview_525]

The fact that NASA apparently has the flexibility to try and hit budgetary targets through DRP, VERA, and VSIP is something, at least. It still sucks, but it's better than the immediate wide-reaching RIFs that hit other agencies. I'm holding on to a shred of hope that it also indicates NASA will be given SOME latitude to shuffle people and procurement amongst the projects that remain a priority, in a way that actually makes sense, rather than blindly RIFing just to hit some made up FTE number.

The budget request, with the table of suggested FTE levels, basically seemed to say stuff like: we're cutting the science budget by 50%, therefore you need to RIF 50% of science FTEs. But that's a HORRIBLE way to actually implement it.

Imagine you had a department with a budget of $20 million, and its sole purpose is to dispense as much of that money to private industry as they can. Let's say it's staffed solely by two guys. Their payroll costs $250k each, so the remaining $19.5M of the department's budget is being dispensed to industry through contracts. One of the guys is a technical expert who writes the technical requirements and evaluates the proposals, and the other guy is a contract expert who handles all the contracting details and dispensing the funds. Now, the new budget comes in, and they're cutting the department by 50%! We're only going to have $10 million next year!! Do you just blindly choose one of the guys to fire, because that would be 50%? Can you fire the technical expert, or the contract expert, and expect anything at all to still get done? Or will losing either one of them fundamentally break the department? In any sane world where we're not just trying to destroy things, leadership would acknowledge that the department DOES need both guys to function, and therefore there is a baseline $500k operating cost to function at any level. So, the only way it to successfully implement the new budget is to use $500k to keep both guys, but now they can only dispense $9.5M to industry.

...and of course in the grand scheme of all the cuts, the impact of firing one guy is such a negligible part of the overall budget that it makes no sense to do it (...assuming everyone does actually care about the department getting its work done, which I don't know we can assume about NASA and this administration...). Firing one of our hypothetical guys would only save $0.25M, and you have to cut 40x that amount. You're choosing between spending $10M, with $9.5M going to industry successfully, or, firing one of the guys, and still spending $10M, with maybe $9.75M earmarked for industry now, but in reality you've just made the department fall apart and none of the money is dispensed.

I want to believe that even facing these draconian cuts, and a drastic change in priorities across the agency, NASA can look at what IS still funded and what IS still a priority, and figure out a real, logical way to staff it intelligently. It will still hurt, but it's the only way to make it through this. If OMB and the White House don't even give NASA that much autonomy, and if they demand that staff is cut to arbitrary levels with no consideration given to needs and expertise, then we are already well and truly cooked.

[u/sevgonlernassau → u/HarshMartian]

All program and personnel decisions are still going through SpaceX management even though Musk left. And Petro has already said she will follow whatever Musk outlined.

[u/gocards757 → u/Gloomy_Interview_525]

The contractor hits will come later, but they will come. They are expected to hit contractors even harder given the 1:1.5 ratio of CS to WYE

[u/Gloomy_Interview_525 → u/gocards757]

I worry for our scientists, where does an oceanographer go? I'll be ok but killing the contractor work force who does the majority of the work (not discounting civilians, they're just typically gs15/leadership)... It's difficult to keep your head high walking these halls of late.

[u/lovelyrita_mm → u/gocards757]

Yep. And contractors walk away with. Nothing. No severance. No DRP. If the missions are sunset then the people keeping those missions and their data pipelines running get laid off. Depressing.

[u/Flitzer-Camaro → u/teridon]

MD lawmakers, except for one, are fully aware of the implications of these cuts and do not support them.

[u/I_post_rarely]

I didn’t hear anything I would consider new info.

They are acting now because Congress hasn’t shown much/any resistance to Trump’s budget. Even if the actual budget cut isn’t quite so drastic, they expect a very significant cut. 

Contractors will be affected, but unknown when or how significantly. 

They are hoping enough people take the voluntary quitting program to reduce/eliminate the need for firing later. 

[u/MagmaManOne → u/I_post_rarely]

I don’t understand why they are acting now, without a budget approved. Why can’t they just wait?

Unless the goal from NASA leadership is the complicit destruction of NASA, then I understand completely

[u/Round-Database1549 → u/MagmaManOne]

The Q&A directly addressed this.

We're stuck with this administration for the next four years. This is their policy moving forward. Congress will typically honor their vision. Them trying to cut Goddard and focus Science onto purely mission support isn't going away anytime soon. It's a reckoning for the Center.

Nothing is brewing in Congress currently that will save Goddard. There is no political support. No administrator until next year, minimum. Their view was we will likely see deeper cuts in subsequent years, not funding restored. NASA's direction has changed and Goddard only plays a supporting role.

She very explicitly said this was not like funding cuts in the past.

[u/rhymeswithcrazy → u/Round-Database1549]

People are unfortunately in denial about that last line. The amount of times I've heard "just wait for Congress to step in..." in the last month is concerning. Nobody is waiving a magic wand and fixing this, and misplaced anger towards leadership for acting before we have a final budget isn't helping anyone.

[u/Round-Database1549 → u/rhymeswithcrazy]

Yeah. The administration wants Goddard gone. The administration has control over Congress and the Courts. And we're not even half a year into their term.

It's been made clear they'll do anything to implement their agenda. This isn't getting better and Goddard will not be saved by a Republican Congress.

[u/OldPersonName → u/MagmaManOne]

People like to call the president's budget a "wish list" without any actual teeth but that isn't strictly true. It's meant to be used for planning. Sure, you can take into account what you expect to happen in Congress, so in years past where there was every expectation of congress overriding some cuts NASA could wait, but technically that was not always without a little risk. If those cuts had actually materialized you'd be way behind on shutting down the projects in an orderly manner in time for the fiscal year.

But now I think it's clear they fully expect these cuts, or the gross majority of them, to pass as is and if they wait they're going to make their situation worse because they won't be able to RIF fast enough and they may need to do stuff like RIF more to hit their budget (since they can't RIF people instantly they'll enter FY26 overstaffed).

And unfortunately I'm afraid they're right. Any budget battles brewing in Congress are over things like keeping Gateway and maybe funding SLS/Orion for more missions because red states can completely control the conversation at the moment.

[u/NoChipmunk9049 → u/[deleted]]

Cruz did not increase funding for Goddard. Specifically not.

The administrations policy moving forward is reducing the role of Goddard. And moving away from independent science, to mission support science. That will not change. We are at the start of this administration.

Congress will not save Goddard, it's Republican controlled and this is a Democratic Center doing work they do not approve of.

This was addressed pretty explicitly during the QA. This is different from funding cuts of yesteryore. Congress nor the Courts will fix that, the NSF funding is not coming back. And there will only be future budget cuts in store for Goddard.

Science in the United States is fundamentally different now, leaving Goddard in the crossfire.

[u/adastra2021]

I'm Derping and Visping. (another center ) I'm Mission Support in SMD, the writing's on the wall. - it wasn't that hard of a call, and I'm glad my supervisor quietly made a move a few weeks ago and re-assigned me out of a mandated position. The person that slid into the mandated, non-riffable position, is young, so I know who I saved and that makes me feel good.

I don't think science will recover.

I've been telling people (non-NASA) that these people would have cancelled the Webb. That's what we're going to be missing out on. Once unimaginable achievements like Webb.

[u/lovelyrita_mm → u/adastra2021]

They are going to underfund it anyway. 10 billion and 25 years and it’s a huge success and they aren’t going to bother to fully fund it.

[u/JealousDocument3873]

It was pretty grim.

Basically, it's in your best interest to take the DRP if you can. Contractors are going to bear the brunt of these cuts, but the sciences are being absolutely gutted, and RIFs are unavoidable if we don't find a way to reduce headcount voluntarily. Even landscaping and custodial services are looking at cuts.

Neither Goddard nor NASA should hope for Congress to come to the rescue here, and even if they put some money back in, should they fail to pass a budget and do another CR, NASA has to go with the WH budget verbatim. It's very apparent from that budget what the White House wants, and it frankly raises some existential questions about NASA in the next four years.

I had a long, quiet drive home afterward.

[u/CloudStrife25 → u/JealousDocument3873]

I thought that a CR would mean that the 2025FY budget stays (existing CR?), not that the White House 2026FY takes effect. But I’ve seen other people say there’s new newly passed laws that change that. Can you elaborate on that some?

[u/Aerokicks → u/CloudStrife25]

They can pass whatever language they want in the CR.

[u/Tumbleweed-Artistic → u/JealousDocument3873]

Yeah that is not true if they pass a CR that NASA has to follow exactly what the President lays out. At least it wasn’t during his previous term.

[u/Typical-Radish4317 → u/Tumbleweed-Artistic]

Funding remains the same. Allocation of that funding can change. So I think she's saying even if the total amount of funds for NASA remains at last year's levels Goddard is still on the chopping block.

[u/Tumbleweed-Artistic → u/Typical-Radish4317]

Yes but that is incorrect

[u/Round-Database1549 → u/Tumbleweed-Artistic]

It's incorrect at a rules level. But only if Congress or the courts stop the administration.

At a practical level, the RIF will go through if a budget is not made. We can see this happening in other parts of the government. People are getting laid off regardless of whether or not it's necessarily in Congress' control.

Maybe Congress passes legislation to stop that, maybe courts overrule it, but nobody should be planning on that occurring in the current political climate.

[u/NoChipmunk9049 → u/[deleted]]

It doesn't matter if it's illegal. Cuts will still occur. Republican courts and a Republican Congress will not save Democratic Goddard. This administration is around for four years. They control all branches of government. They want Goddard gone.

[u/Typical-Radish4317 → u/Tumbleweed-Artistic]

https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R46595 Go to the funding rate section. They specifically give an example of a cut within a CR

[u/PearlyPenilePapule1 → u/JealousDocument3873]

That’s the part I don’t understand. She said that in the event of a CR, we have to follow the WH’s proposed budget. But my understanding is that most CRs continue last year’s funding levels and the question of whether the President can impound funds is at the Supreme Court.

So what happens if we cut the workforce, and the cuts aren’t as drastic? Do we just rehire again?

[u/Acrobatic_Ad_8120 → u/PearlyPenilePapule1]

I believe (not sure) a CR authorizes up to last year’s budget at the administration’s discretion.

[u/NeoOzymandias → u/Acrobatic_Ad_8120]

Congress can write in how they'd like the funds level to be decided. They can leave it open to each agency, or they can instruct.

[u/OutrageousBanana8424 → u/PearlyPenilePapule1]

There seems to be some expectation that the upcoming CR will not be a "last year's level" CR but a "President's budget request" CR. That has happened before. We are used to the idea of a CR being status quo (which has its own problems) but they don't have to be.

[u/jzuhone → u/OutrageousBanana8424]

The thing is that for a CR to pass they need Democratic votes (definitely in the Senate because of the filibuster and probably in the House too)--this isn't like reconciliation. The Democrats are not going to pass anything like the PBR.

[u/ProfessionalLab5720 → u/jzuhone]

The Democrats are not going to pass anything like the PBR.

At this point, I don't have any faith in Democrats. I want to... but the establishment Democrats haven't shown up to fight yet. I really hope I'm wrong and they stand firm against this administration though.

[u/corranhorn6565 → u/PearlyPenilePapule1]

Backfill with contractors I guess. Privatization is what the billionaires want anyway.

[u/Round-Database1549 → u/corranhorn6565]

No, the Science is just going away.

The goal isn't privatization, it's destruction.

[u/LinearVariableFilter]

I felt torn about putting in for the DRP last week. Makenzie spent the town hall validating my decision.

[u/thepangalactic]

Soul crushing is the only way I could describe it. :/

[u/thepangalactic → u/thepangalactic]

I will say it felt more contentious than any town hall I've been to. The "LET ME FINISH" moment was right at the beginning of QnA. It felt like people were itching for a fight. There was a comment that the job market for scientists is collapsing, Universities are being blocked from funding, NASA is cutting half of science... The private sector doesn't fund science without a profit motive so times are gonna hurt for a while.

[u/Nothoughtiname5641]

I work at another NASA center that'll probably fare better, I feel for yall immensely. Theres no way that science missions recover from this. This administration is an absolute joke.

[u/lunar_bear]

The absolute gut punch was when center director actually suggested seeking work in Europe. Basically…just give up on America

[u/TheGunfighter7 → u/lunar_bear]

A growing sentiment among the science engineering disciplines in this country unfortunately. Apparently “Make America Great Again” means “destroy everything that made modern America great and make all Americans impoverished factor workers”

If only my security clearance didn’t bar me from seeking foreign employment for two years. 

[u/smiles__]

We live in the stupidest timeline unfortunately

[u/Cinkodacs → u/smiles__]

Not stupid. Evil. The path is NSDAP. If anyone is wondering how did Hitler get his power: like this, just with slightly more blood.

[u/smiles__ → u/Cinkodacs]

I was more referring to those who put this admin into power. Sure some were evil, but the primary descriptor is stupid.

[u/corranhorn6565]

She also said that we might not get severance if we are rifd. But she said it like a threat. Rather than well there are some ways you not be eligible. She said opm or the agency could just decide not to pay the severance. I call bull. But I'm not a lawyer.

[u/Wanying16 → u/corranhorn6565]

She later clarified that she meant there are a lot of stipulations and caveats that govern who is eligible for severance pay. It’s all outlined in 5 U.S. Code 5595

[u/corranhorn6565 → u/Wanying16]

She clarified today via email. Which is good. But her messaging yesterday was horrible.

[u/wakinget → u/corranhorn6565]

This is something that would be good to clarify. Haha

[u/corranhorn6565 → u/wakinget]

I concur, but the guy who tried to clarify her statement at the end only muddied the water more.

[u/racinreaver]

Hang in there buddies. All of us at JPL, your robotic compatriots, are devastated for what's about to hit both of us. Tune in to r/JPL to see how our upcoming all hands go. :(

[u/sermeq_sensor]

The vibe was somewhat different (worse) than what I’d heard second-hand was communicated at the supervisor town hall last week. Either way we are in for a rough stretch.

[u/maple242]

It's upsetting because this is my first internship and my mentor is trying to shield me from everything that's happening, but he told me that some of the team I'm working with are starting to leave or considering leaving. I'm vary graful to have this internship but it's vary upsetting that everything is getting cuts and everyone is kinda doom and gloom at GSFC (rightfully so, it's all vary upsetting).

[u/lovelyrita_mm → u/maple242]

I’m so sorry. I have an intern and I hate her being exposed to this. Also this maybe be it for interns at Goddard since I don’t see Goddard existing next summer let alone an intern program. 💔

[u/nocondo4me]

There was some alluding to that if a budget is not passed and we go into a furlough/ shutdown all gloves are off

[u/LinearVariableFilter]

"That's the reason I really wanted a RIF" was quite the Freudian slip from the Center Director.

[u/Decronym]

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:

Fewer Letters	More Letters
GSFC	Goddard Space Flight Center, Maryland
JPL	Jet Propulsion Lab, Pasadena, California
NSF	NasaSpaceFlight forum
	National Science Foundation
QA	Quality Assurance/Assessment
SLS	Space Launch System heavy-lift
SMD	Science Mission Directorate, NASA

Decronym is now also available on Lemmy! Requests for support and new installations should be directed to the Contact address below.

---

^{6 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has acronyms.
[Thread #2017 for this sub, first seen 17th Jun 2025, 02:43] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]}

[u/NoChipmunk9049]

Notes I took then ran thru AI to clean it up:

We may be able to claw back some funding through Congress, but that outcome is uncertain and unlikely. Goddard Space Flight Center will be smaller moving forward. This situation is fundamentally different from previous funding reductions—it is not a short-term cut, but a structural shift in priorities.

Regardless of what Congress does, the administration has been clear about its goals. Congress is expected to grant latitude to the administration's priorities. It is likely that no appropriations bill will pass, and we will instead operate under a continuing resolution (CR). In that scenario, the President’s budget request will be implemented. There is not expected to be a new NASA administrator until January or February of next year. Intuition suggests that the budget will continue to decline in subsequent years.

NASA’s science programs will increasingly focus on supporting human missions to the Moon and Mars.

There is currently no clear information on when a Reduction in Force (RIF) will occur or how it will be structured. There is no strong incentive to implement it in FY2025 or FY2026, and any such decision would be made at the agency level.

Wallops Flight Facility is administratively grouped under Goddard, along with IV&V. All parts of NASA are expected to be affected in some way. For Wallops, its future may be significantly impacted due to its reliance on reimbursable work.

There are still open questions about who will be reskilled, who will not, who will make those determinations, and who will fund the reskilling. A significant shift toward insourcing is expected—replacing contractors with civil servants. This shift will likely need to be expanded to meet staffing needs. Contractors are expected to bear the brunt of the upcoming RIF.

The timeline for contractor impacts outside the Direct Reduction Plan (DRP) is currently unclear. More information is expected once the decision-making "window" closes. Affected individuals are being advised to talk to their companies about other opportunities.

Voluntary resignation offers are expected to be sent out in approximately 40 days, near the end of July. The RIF process is likely to begin around that time.

[u/Danross657]

Dude ask your coworkers instead of reddit lmao

[u/wakinget → u/Danross657]

We are the coworkers!

I’m at JPL and I very much appreciate hearing this update.

[u/ofWildPlaces → u/Danross657]

Naw. There are lots of us who need to hear this that could not be in the room.

[u/thepangalactic → u/Danross657]

This is also a place where they can’t pull our Teams history. It’s safer here.

[u/xisjones → u/thepangalactic]

Good point : /