NASA whistleblowers have “already seen safety impacts” from the implementation of the President’s budget request; one whistleblower warns they’re “very concerned that we’re going to see an astronaut death within a few years.” 

OMB’s Vought plans to use impoundment to gut NASA under a CR without guardrails, whistleblower docs show

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, 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.”

CLICK HERE TO VIEW REPORT AND DOCUMENTS 

Key findings:  

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

1. As early as June 2025, NASA began “implementing immediately” certain “institutional changes” to align with the President’s proposed budget—which carries no force of law.
2. NASA Chief of Staff Brian Hughes is enforcing OMB’s directive to actively implement the President’s FY26 budget request. It has been made clear to NASA employees that “they are doing the PBR” and “if it’s not in the PBR, it does not count.”
3. 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.”

Culture of Fear at NASA Jeopardizes Safety and Security

1. According to whistleblower accounts, “everyone is busy capitulating to the PBR” such that NASA employees now feel discouraged from bringing safety concerns forward, fearing retaliation or losing their positions. One NASA whistleblower warned that “employees are being told to keep their heads down.”
2. NASA whistleblowers have “already seen safety impacts” during the implementation of the President’s budget request, with one whistleblower warning they were “very concerned that we’re going to see an astronaut death within a few years” because of the Administration’s “chainsaw approach” to the agency.  
3. Another whistleblower disclosed they nearly took the highly unusual step of declaring a safety stop and shutting down a physically dangerous test before its conclusion because of severe staffing cuts and shortages.
4. And another whistleblower warned that NASA’s independent Ombuds Program has also been compromised, with the current situation “preventing people from filtering concerns upward.”  The whistleblower revealed: “We’re expected not to bring safety concerns forward and to not use good judgment. I see safety issues around us all the time.”

The Administration is Hiding OMB’s Budget Directives

1. 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.”
2. A NASA whistleblower told Committee Democratic staff that “compliance with the PBR seems to be driven by threats to high level leaders” coming from OMB or other political leadership. The whistleblower said that NASA employees “have been told to get in line with the PBR or lose their job or position.” According to multiple NASA whistleblowers, a general sentiment across the agency is: “No one is coming to save us.”

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

1. All told, the 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—a significant gut punch to American scientific leadership.
2. The budget is already impacting NASA’s talent pipeline, which one whistleblower feared “is now closed.” NASA is ending internship programs and zeroing out student programs intended to train the future generation of NASA scientists and engineers.
3. A whistleblower warned that NASA is “losing our future workforce,” which is “really heartbreaking to see the future of NASA, just disappearing.”

NASA whistleblowers—who bravely came forward with these alarming disclosures—emphasized they simply want the Trump Administration to follow the law as Congress intended. And while this report documents the illegal destruction happening at NASA, there can be no doubt the Trump Administration is trying to execute similar plans at agencies across the federal government.

Senate Democrats released a legislative proposal that would specifically prohibit the Administration from unilaterally implementing the President’s FY26 budget proposal under a CR and specifically bar the Administration from gutting NASA’s Science Mission Directorate during a CR. If the status quo continues, one whistleblower warned it “could end up being the destruction of NASA’s mission.” 

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