Trump’s Plan “Ending NASA as We Know It”

Project 2025 in action.
Told ya.

Senate Commerce Committee:

oday, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, released a new staff report revealing that OMB Director Russell Vought has been directing NASA—since early summer—to begin implementing the devastating cuts in President Trump’s Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Request (PBR), without regard for the destructive impacts to NASA’s missions, safety and workforce. Based on whistleblower reports and documents, the report also reveals that Vought plans to impound NASA funds “to get to the PBR” under a continuing resolution (CR), in violation of the Constitution.

“Like other premier science agencies, NASA has thrived on consistent, bipartisan investments, which are essential to America’s economic prosperity and technological supremacy,” the report notes. “But today, NASA faces an existential threat under the Trump Administration.”

US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation – Maria Cantwell, Ranking Member:

NASA Has Been Implementing the President’s Proposed Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Cuts Since Early Summer—In Clear Violation of the Constitution

• As early as June, 2025, NASA began implementing immediately certain institutional changes  budget—which carries no force of law.
• NASA’s Chief of Staff Brian Hughes is enforcing OMB’s directive to actively implement the President’s FY 26 Budget request. It has been made clear to NASA employees that they are doing the PBR  if it’s not in the PBR, it does not count
• OMB Director Russell Vought’s budgetary end game is to use impoundment to illegally implement the President’s proposed budget at NASA, while ignoring congressional funding levels. Internal agency notes provided by a whistleblower reveal this plot: If there is a CR, impoundment is likely going to get on the table as a mechanism to get to the PBR

The Administration is Hiding OMB’s Budget Directives

The Trump administration’s effort to defy the Constitution and unilaterally implement sweeping cuts to NASA is 
“all under wraps”, “nothing is written down” and “all avenues of communication have been shut down.”

The New Culture of Fear at NASA Jeopardizes Safety and Security

NASA whistleblowers already seen safety impacts from the implementation of the President’s Budget Request, with one whistleblower warning the were very concerned that we’re going to see an astronaut death within a few years.

President’s Budget Cuts Will Kneecap the U.S. Innovation Economy

President’s proposed budget would result in a loss of more than $46 billion in economic output, 860 fewer PhD STEM graduates, and 10,700 fewer U.S. researchers—

UPDATE:

Not just NASA. Illegal funding cuts hitting all over government.

NOTUS:

Across federal agencies, the Trump administration’s aggressive slash-and-burn approach to federal programs, grants and contracts has repeatedly challenged Congress’ power of the purse. The administration has claimed it has the discretion to redirect funds to programs aligned with Trump’s agenda — and Republican congressional leaders have largely let them do it.

The outcome: Billions in taxpayer dollars have become virtually untraceable — a level of opaqueness in government funds that’s raising questions around the legality of the administration’s actions. Some of these taxpayer funds expire on Sept. 30. If they’re not spent by then, like all funds Congress appropriated specifically for 2025, they disappear.