Shutdown: NASA Employees Ordered Not To Do Any Space Exploration
Planning for a Government Shutdown, NASA
“During the Shutdown Furlough, you will be in a nonpay, nonduty status. During this time, you will not be permitted to serve NASA as an unpaid volunteer. You must remain away from your worksite, and may not work at home, in another location, or participate in events hosted by non-NASA entities in your official capacity like speeches or speakers bureau engagements, unless and until recalled.”
Keith’s 27 Dec note: It would seem that NASA Administrator Bridenstine and NASA SMD AA Zurbuchen are prohibited from attending or even talking about anything having to do with the New Horizons flyby of Ultima Thule.
Keith’s 28 Dec update: I’m now told by NASA that Jim Bridenstine and Thomas Zurbuchen are considered “essential employees” during #governmentshutdown – which is not all that unexpected 😉
NASA Operating Status
“NASA is currently CLOSED due to a lapse in Government funding Orderly Shutdown Will Begin December 26, 2018”
NASA, other federal workers not as supportive of government shutdown as Trump claims, union rep says, Houston Chronicle
“Trump has argued that federal workers support the shutdown, saying Tuesday, “Many of those workers have said to me and communicated, ‘stay out until you get the funding for the wall.’ These federal workers want the wall, ” according to an ABC News story published on Christmas Day. In its statement, the union said Trump needs to stop “gambling with the lives of federal workers.” “If the president wants to gamble, perhaps he should go back to running casinos,” the statement said.”
Government shutdown grounds NASA testing, Sandusky Register
“Most recently, a simulated spacecraft resembling Orion’s actual article underwent and aced noise-related tests. Engineers collected data to input into Orion’s actual article, ensuring, upon a scheduled 2021 launch, the spacecraft can withstand extreme vibration it’ll likely encounter in space. Depending on the shutdown’s length, a federal holdup could push back several crucial Orion-related experiments scheduled for 2019 at Plum Brook. Before then, Plum Brook’s staff has prepared for these tests, analyzing data gathered from past trial runs. Though the stoppage means these workers and others contracted to work with NASA at Plum Brook on other projects must stand idle and wait for who knows how long.”
All this on the 50th anniversary of Apollo 8. What happened to this country?
It’s been happening for a long time…
Nevertheless partisanship appears more extreme now than in my recent memory, perhaps because when there were only a few media channels we tended to at least hear different points of view. Today there are so many channels that each plays to a specific audience and we never listen to people we disagree with.
It’s what George Washington had warned would happen when folks put the interests of their political party before that of their nation. The G.I. Generation did great things like Project Apollo because they loved their country more than their political party.
Once again I find myself agreeing with you, Dr. M.; it’s a distressing trend.
Me too.
I’m not sure I like that “G.I. Generation” term, since (1) it involved several generations (2) many of them were never in the military and (3) it’s a generalization and quite a few people from those generations were definitely quite egocentric. But I understand what you mean; the current population is, relatively speaking, less self-sacrificing.
And Washington didn’t warn against political parties. If memory serves, he used the phrase “factions” and organized political parties didn’t exist at the time. Political parties are actually worse, if you ask me. Factions are organized around actual issues. These days, we’re down to “what’s your favorite color?” (Are you a Red, a Blue or a Green?)
Actually President Washington did use the term political parties as the ancestors of the Democrats and Republicans parties were already in existence and viciously attacking each other in the 1796 elections over issues not much different than today, for and against involvement in European affairs, what to do about terrorists attacking ships and Americans in the Mideast, trade policy, etc. In many ways nothing has really changed, including the parties positions, since then, it is just that we are going through the vicious part of the cycle of the endless battle.
In Washington’s farewell address both terms are used:
https://www.presidency.ucsb…
Although apparently written by Alexander Hamilton, Washington must have agreed with the sentiments expressed.
“The G.I. Generation did great things like Project Apollo because they loved their country more than their political party.”
I think you have an extremely nostalgic view of the past. Watergate was done by members of the generation that you claim loved their country more than their political party.
Tax generation was totally different then ..
Yes, and the government was much smaller and had less interaction with citizens on a daily basis. But they still fought over what government should do, government policies and how to pay for government.
I doubt an Administrator could show up to the New Horizons encounter without it looking like it being “in [his] official capacity.” But there may be some NASA and other government employees who could. And I wouldn’t want to discourage them. Specifically, it isn’t too uncommon for events like this to have an auditorium where team members’ friends and relatives can watch everything as it happens. I know Cassini did so for both orbital insertion and the final entry into Saturn.
If one of those friends or relatives happens to be a NASA employee, they could attend despite the shutdown, since they aren’t there in their official capacity. But there’s no way an Administrator or Associate Administrator could get away with that, no matter what. It would _look_ official, and that’s enough to cause trouble.
The bolded quote from NASA above reads like the same boilerplate sent out at previous shutdowns.
Yes, it is boilerplate and was sent out during past government shutdown. It’s also a legal requirement which NASA currently has to follow. If you think it’s a foolish requirement, I won’t disagree. But if you expect NASA to do anything different, you need to call your congressmen and tell them to change the rules.
What are those ‘rules’, anyway? And how far do they go- are all contractors similarly obligated, for instance?
Could anyone explain the thinking behind the ‘no volunteering’ policy? Is this some sort of a liability issue? or?
I believe that it’s intended as a protection for the employees themselves. It keeps people from being pressured into working without pay from a boss that suggests it would be good for their career future or some such. I suspect it’s somewhere in the Civil Service regs. To be honest that’s a guess, but I suspect it hits in the right neighborhood.
No, it’s definitely not a civil service thing. I know for a fact that JPL applies the same sort of “no pay, no work” policy to subcontractors. When I asked about it, I mostly got blank looks and the suggestion that asking _why_ makes no sense (the rules exist; we follow them; it’s not our place to ask why…) But someone did suggest covert lobbying might be an issue. If the government accepted unpaid work, they’d have to accept and consider free “studies” submitted by companies with vested interests. I have no idea if that’s true, I don’t see how it would justify a blanket ban, but I’ve given up on expecting Federal Acquisition Regulations to make sense.
It’s a labor law thing – for just the reason Lawrence Wild suggested – to prevent employers from “suggesting” that workers volunteer, in hopes of eventual compensation or reward. It’s in the same bucket as “unpaid interns” which have been in the news over the past few years.
This comes up all the time in charity organizations, which have to be very careful about keeping the status of people clear: you’re either paid or you’re volunteer, and you can’t mix it. Many companies are quite careful about this – Organizing a weekend company potluck and picnic for family members is full of traps from the wage/hour law standpoint.
An “exempt” employee on a salary has no fixed work hours, but in California, at least, if you work any amount of a day, you must be paid a day’s salary. For hourly (non-exempt) workers, you have to be paid for your hours of work, on the regular schedule published by the employer, etc.
A contractor (i.e Caltech) can have employees work during a shutdown – just like a manufacturer making something to be delivered at some future date can keep working – the expectation is that they will be paid when the terms of the contract are met. It’s true that there’s some risk for the contractor here – they may be ready to deliver their widget and the government isn’t open to take delivery or process the invoice.
I still don’t see how that would apply to JPL subcontractors. As a subcontractor, not an employee, I once had a few month gap in funding. I was going from one institution to another and setting up the subcontract took longer than expected. JPL was very emphatic about me not working on one of their projects. Since they weren’t my employer, it isn’t clear to me how “the boss can’t make you work unpaid overtime” explains the rule. Unless, of course, it’s just a rule and just apply it without considering whether or not it makes sense in a specific case…
But you have to admit this is a little ironic. Non-essential employees aren’t allowed to work, to protect them from forced, unpaid labor; essential employees are _required_ to work without pay.
I believe the actual issue is that the government can’t accept what they call an “unfunded mandate”. If they did, anyone could just do work, then demand the government pay for it. It dates to the Reconstruction, aparrently.
The shutdown itself is so completely irrational on every level from constitutional law to efficient use of tax dollars that I believe any attempt to find a rational explanation for the policy surrounding it is futile.
For example, NASA permits individuals to work without pay as “NASA volunteers”, it’s an official position that allows them to be given center access, and some government employees, including (apparently) Coast Guard are being required to work without pay. My suspicion is that the no work policy was implemented because it was the simplest answer.
No it’s a political decision not to allow civil servants to work- even at home. Military civil service when furloughed receive the same boiler point instructions. If all the civil servants were to be able volunteer to work it would defeat the political agends to politically pressure passing The budget.
It’s frustrating – but it’s great that the gop, Dems parties of the house, senate and president (executive) have to work something out. It’s part of our American constitutional process. Every time we have a shutdown it reminds me we are still America. Balancing of the branches of American government is a good thing- it signals no particular branch or party is all powerful and a big disagreement needs to be worked out.
The rules don’t come with explanations or rationals. That’s probably deliberate. Getting a law passed requires forming a consensus to get votes. That means pulling together people who support it for different reasons.
In any case, the no-pay-no-work thing does apply to contractors, but not if a government shutdown is short enough. Specifically, the contracts usually authorize spending over a period of a few months. The expenses have to be reported, but generally not at a day-by-day level of detail. NASA will see a bill for how many hours I worked this month, but they will neither know nor care if that was on the week of the 24th. On the other hand, if the shutdown lasts too long, and a contractor hits the end of one of those multi-month allocations, there could be a problem.
Yes, if the funding is already on contract then contractors can continue to work as long as they do not require oversight by (furloughed) civil servants. When the money runs out the contractors also have to cease work.
But here’s the thing: the scientists, engineers, and everyone else working on New Horizons as well as many other projects are doing it at least in part because it’s their life’s work. It’s a thing they love. It’s a commitment to quality.
And those motivators are exactly what every employer in the country wants from employees.
The heartbreak is this: our country is over run with ‘corporate think’ in which labor isn’t a human being but a work product.
Well, in some ways, this rule is unenforcible. A significant amount of science and engineering involves thinking. They can tell people not to work at home, but it’s hard to tell them to turn off their brains. Some people may figure out creative solutions to a problem while they are furloughed, and there isn’t anything the government can do about it.
I’m not sure being “essential employees” is a free pass to attend the New Horizons flyby. During the last major, government shutdown (2013), I seem to remember some people working part time. That was the grounds that some, but not all, of their work was essential. Presumably the Administrator and Associate Administrator may only do essential work during the current shutdown. On the other hand, part of their essential work is deciding what tasks are essential, so I guess they can authorize themselves to attend the flyby event.
The oddest thing, as a Canadian observer and probably other nationalities and government systems as well, is that once a program is voted on and approved, then you also need to vote on funding it, and it appears, on an annual basis! It seems so crazy. If a democratically elected government approves a program, then the funding should be an assumed result of that vote. If the program is too expensive, then the government can cancel it, no problem, or else go into deficit. But to hold the program hostage because there is no funding, well, it just seems that the legislators weren’t doing their job when they first approved the program!
That would be logical, but legislators gain power and lobbying dollars from their ability to provide or deny funding every year.
There is 0 chance that the shutdown will end before the flyby, but it looks like essential flyby activities will go forward without direct government participation.
https://www.space.com/42855…
No one is talking about how the Deep Space Communications Network will still be running.
That’s a little vague… But I think you mean the comment about subcontractors. I’d expect them to be covered by contract laws, not labor laws. That’s not immune from arm twisting, but I would expect it to be handled differently. And contractors can do no-cost exchanges of services. It’s just a different sort of relationship, so I’d be surprised if the same rules applied.