Congress: Support Voyager Declaration of Dissent, by NASA Employees

Today I take pen in hand to write and urge you to publicly support the Declaration of Dissent by hundreds of NASA employees, the Voyager Declaration. NASA's proposed budget cuts and staffing reductions threaten the agency's critical missions and jeopardize scientific progress, human safety, and America's global leadership in space exploration. The drastic changes imposed by the Trump administration are wasteful and undermine NASA's core purpose. In writing to you I strongly support the Voyager Declaration signed by over 280 NASA employees and astronauts who have bravely voiced their dissent. The mass firing of over 2,600 highly skilled NASA personnel and cancellation of $118 million in grants is an unacceptable loss of invaluable expertise and resources. Cutting nearly half of NASA'S science budget would cripple the nation's ability to advance scientific understanding and make groundbreaking discoveries that benefit all humanity, not just moneyed interests. These are reckless actions that risk squandering decades of investment in NASA's pioneering work. We urge the administration to reverse course on these destructive policies that compromise NASA's future and America's preeminence in space sciences and technology. The additional mission of NASA is learning how our world is affected by human-driven climate change, changes to oceans, and so on. Robust funding and staffing are vital to ensure NASA can continue all this critical work safely and effectively. Commercial interests don’t care about any. Upholding scientific integrity and respecting open dissent from subject matter experts serves the nation's best interests. Protecting and empowering NASA to fulfill its mission must be a top priority. Thank you for your attention to this matter.