IFPTE Calls on Congress to Restore NASA Programs – Union Calls for Funding Science, Aeronautics

SILVER SPRING, MD – On the eve of tomorrow’s NASA budget hearing before the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Science, State, Justice, Commerce and Related Agencies, the International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers (IFPTE) expressed its concerns with drastic cuts to several NASA programs.  In particular the union took issue with NASA’s proposed shortfalls to both Aeronautics and Science, as well NASA’s intent to move forward with Reduction-in-Force (RIF) plans next year. 

In a letter sent to the Subcommittee’s Chairman, Congressman Frank Wolf (R, VA) and Ranking Member, Congressman Alan Mollohan (D, WV), IFPTE President Gregory Junemann outlined the union’s requests to bring funding for the two programs back to the levels approved by Congress last year.  Junemann also raised objections to NASA proposals aimed at spending tens of millions of dollars to implement a RIF for upwards of 1,000 NASA Civil Servant workers.

“As you embark on the difficult task of crafting the Fiscal Year 2007 (FY07) Appropriations for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and as you prepare for this Thursday’s hearing with Administrator Griffin on his NASA budget proposal, the International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers (IFPTE) urges the Subcommittee to consider three important questions,” Junemann wrote to Representatives Wolf and Mollohan.  “How will NASA be able to support America’s threatened leadership in civilian and military aviation if it cuts its Aeronautics research and development (R&D) budget by a quarter from FY05 levels?  How can NASA lead the world in studying and understanding our home planet, our solar system, our Universe, and the forces acting upon them if it cuts its Science budget by almost 10% from FY05 levels?  How can NASA attract and retain a workforce with engineering and scientific skills and capabilities second to none if it continues to threaten its scientists and engineers with layoffs in order to meet arbitrary downsizing quotas?”

In particular, IFPTE asked Congress to:

• Increase the Aeronautics account by $179 million, equaling last year’s appropriation of $903 million;
• Increase the Science account by $132.2 million, equaling last year’s appropriation of $9.5968 billion, and;
• Streamline Administrative (G&A) costs and severely cut and/or restrict the proposed $41 million planned workforce reshaping monies from being used to implement a RIF.

  NASA Administrator Michael Griffin is scheduled to testify tomorrow.  Full text of the Junemann letter can be found at www.ifpte.org. 

March 29, 2006

Chairman Frank Wolf
Ranking Member Alan Mollohan
Subcommittee on Science, State, Justice, and Commerce, and Related Agencies
US House of Representatives
H-309 The Capitol
Washington, DC  20515

Dear Chairman Wolf and Ranking Member Mollohan,

As you embark on the difficult task of crafting the Fiscal Year 2007 (FY07) Appropriations for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and as you prepare for this Thursday’s hearing with Administrator Griffin on his NASA budget proposal, the International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers (IFPTE) urges the Subcommittee to consider three important questions.  How will NASA be able to support America’s threatened leadership in civilian and military aviation if it cuts its Aeronautics research and development (R&D) budget by a quarter from FY05 levels?  How can NASA lead the world in studying and understanding our home planet, our solar system, our Universe, and the forces acting upon them if it cuts its Science budget by almost 10% from FY05 levels?  How can NASA attract and retain a workforce with engineering and scientific skills and capabilities second to none if it continues to threaten its scientists and engineers with layoffs in order to meet arbitrary downsizing quotas?

We at IFPTE believe that preserving America’s leadership in Aeronautics R&D is a national priority that cannot be exaggerated.  We must not grow complacent especially in the face of the serious competition from a European community that clearly understands the important role of government R&D in driving long-term technological breakthroughs and the associated economic vitality.  Congress should make sure that America remains at the cutting edge by appropriately investing in our nation’s future, if we intend to leave our children and America as strong and secure as the one we grew up in.

If those words sound familiar, they are.  Led by your Subcommittee during last year’s appropriations process, Congress correctly admonished NASA for attempting to gut its FY06 Aeronautics budget.  Yet NASA has responded this year by once again proposing to cut Aeronautics R&D, this time by twice as much.  Not only does this ignore the stated will of Congress, but it also signals the agency’s ongoing willingness to cannibalize its successful Science and Aeronautics programs in an unsustainable and ill-advised effort to fund both Shuttle and Exploration programs simultaneously at full throttle.  This is a short-sighted scheme that would harm America’s national security and economic competitiveness.  IFPTE urges you both, as leaders of the Subcommittee, to once again adequately fund NASA’s Aeronautics R&D programs at no less than the final funding level approved in FY06.

We believe that preserving America’s leadership in Space and Earth Science is also a top national priority.  Given that ongoing climate change seriously threatens our economy and way of life, NASA must endeavor to learn as much and as quickly as possible about the natural and man-made forces that act upon our home planet.  NASA must also continue to inspire the next generation of American scientists and engineers with continuous discoveries about our solar system and our Universe through exploration with amazing new telescopes and robotics.  IFPTE urges your Subcommittee to maintain NASA’s Science budget at levels that are least equal to those appropriated in FY06.

We believe in NASA’s Vision for Space Exploration and envision a new generation of scientists and engineers inspired by the prospect of an America man or woman (now only a small child) setting foot on Mars and returning home safely with unparalleled scientific bounty.  The workforce reshaping needed to meet the challenges of this dream is only possible if NASA maintains its traditional ability to attract its fair share of the best and brightest graduates this nation has to offer. NASA must therefore continue to offer stable and meaningful careers to its employees.  NASA cannot be allowed to be transformed into what amounts to a temp agency, sacrificing long-term capabilities and long-held values to meet short-term budgetary pressures, especially when downsizing goals can easily be met with voluntary attrition alone.  To do so would greatly undermine NASA’s ability to compete in the future with elite academic and private-sector institutions for the best talent.  IFPTE urges the Subcommittee to require NASA to treat its workforce with the respect it deserves and thereby to forbid NASA from using hostile, and counter-productive, workforce reshaping procedures or lay-offs.

In this light, we endorse the following three specific proposals and ask that the Subcommittee adopt them as a part of your FY07 underlying funding measure:

1. Appropriate at least $903 million for NASA Aeronautics.

This already represents a 25% cut from the authorized budget of $962M and is the no-growth level carried over from FY06. This represents an increase of $179 million over the Presidents budget and is consistent with the Budget bill passed by the Senate.  The proposed increase should be used to fully restore the Airspace Systems (+$53.8 million) and Fundamental Aeronautics (+$114.5 million) programs and to increase the Human-Systems Integration and Validation elements within the Aviation Safety program (+$10.7 million).

2. Appropriate at least $9.5968 billion for NASA Science.

This already represents a 4% cut from the actual FY05 budget of $5.824 billion and is the no-growth budget level carried over from FY06.  This represents an increase of $132.2 million over the Presidents budget and requires that the Robotic Lunar Exploration program and funds ($134.6 million) be retained within the Science account (as is appropriate given that the details of any ultimate human lunar exploration missions should be driven primarily by scientific goals developed and refined under this Science program).  The proposed increase should be used to reverse proposed cuts to the Explorer (+17.7 million), Navigator (+17.3 million), Astrobiology (+$30 million), and SOFIA programs (+$67.2 million).

3. Streamline Administrative (G&A) costs and eliminate those for Reduction-In-Force planning and execution.

The Corporate and Center G&A budgets, used in part to support an inefficient management system, should be seriously scrutinized as this is the best potential source for sizeable inconsequential offsets for the increases proposed above.  In particular, the $41 million proposed to implement workforce reshaping should be severely cut and/or restricted to the planning and implementation of appropriate reshaping tools, such as enhanced buy-outs or re-training.  We strongly advocate that any remaining increase in funds needed for our proposals (< $300 million total) be used to increase the overall NASA budget.  However, if additional offsets are necessary, we recommend that they be recouped by small decreases in the growth of the exploration and space operations accounts, consistent with the Presidents pay-as-you-go philosophy.  We also ask that language be added to the report stating that "None of the FY07 funds appropriated in this Act shall be used to prepare or effect any involuntary reductions in NASA's Civil Servant non-management workforce."

  Thank you in advance for your consideration.  Should you have any questions, you can contact me, or IFPTE Legislative Director Matt Biggs, at (301) 565-9016.

Sincerely,

  Gregory J. Junemann,
President