NASA Slashing Over 20% of Workforce

A budget proposal from the White House, released in May, would reduce NASA’s overall budget by 24 percent. The topline number would drop from $24 billion to $18 billion.

The deferred resignation program was instituted throughout the federal government by Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to help slash the size of the federal workforce and cut down on costs, waste, fraud and abuse.

NASA also experienced turbulence earlier this year as the president’s first pick for the agency’s administrator, tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, was pulled in late May, days before he was set for a confirmation vote.

Shortly after, Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk — who was the chief adviser for DOGE before he departed the White House — had a public falling out.

Trump later tapped Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to be the interim NASA administrator, saying earlier this month that the former Wisconsin lawmaker is doing a “TREMENDOUS job in handling our Country’s Transportation Affairs, including creating a state-of-the-art Air Traffic Control systems, while at the same time rebuilding our roads and bridges, making them efficient, and beautiful, again.”