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Shutdown

NASA Furlough Update (Revised)

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
January 23, 2019
Filed under
NASA Furlough Update (Revised)

Keith’s note: With one exception in the Jim Bridenstine memo – in one sentence – these memos deal only with the impact of the shutdown on NASA civil servants – not on contractor employees. Contractor employees are not being paid either and may never be paid.
NASA Internal Employee Memo: An Update to the Furlough
“While many of you may not immediately see this message, I wanted to send a note of thanks to the entire NASA family. Your dedication is an inspiration to everyone caught up in this furlough and your ongoing work is vital to the safety and success of NASA. During a lapse in funding by the federal government there are many routines and procedures that must be followed. Many of these happen behind the scenes. However, one of those procedures will be visible as a second round of furlough notices will be distributed. After the first 30 days during a lapse of funding, agencies are required to deliver another furlough notice. You do not need to take any additional action.
I want you to know how much I appreciate your patience and commitment during this unique time in American history. I understand this furlough is a real hardship for many of you and while civil servants will eventually receive back pay, the situation is not as clear for many of our family members in the contracting community. We are working with procurement and contracting officers to mitigate the impacts for you as we all look forward to the ultimate resolution of this lapse in appropriations.”

Message to the Workforce from Bob Gibbs, Chief Human Capital Officer/Assistant Administrator, Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer – Important Information Related to the Government Shutdown – January 22, 2019
“e. I’m hearing a rumor that Reduction in Force (RIF) regulations and rules apply since the furlough is lasting longer than 30 calendar days, is this true? No, per the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Reduction in Force (RIF) regulations and SES competitive furlough requirements are not applicable to emergency shutdown furloughs because the ultimate duration of an emergency shutdown furlough is unknown at the outset and is dependent entirely on Congressional action, rather than agency action.
2. Back Pay. The President signed S.24 the “Federal Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019,” into law. The bill guarantees that Federal civil servant workers at departments/agencies affected by any lapse in appropriations that begins on or after December 22, 2018, will receive wages withheld during the shutdown. Even with the passage of the bill, salaries for any employees cannot not be paid until after a Continuing Resolution (CR) or FY 2019 appropriations legislation is signed and we are back to work. After we return to work, we will work quickly to retroactively pay employees. Additional guidance and information on retroactive timekeeping will be provided after normal operations resume.”

NASA Ames Internal Memo: Second Notice of Decision – Furlough (Non-Excepted)
“For NASA, almost all “excepted employees” are those involved in protection of life or property. Because your services are not needed to conduct one of the excepted activities, your position is designated as non-excepted and you are being placed in a furlough status, effective January 23, 2019.”

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

17 responses to “NASA Furlough Update (Revised)”

  1. mfwright says:
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    Depressing to see all these furlough articles and on the right a symposium ad featuring picture of Robert Goddard. Kind of like back in his time with his brilliancy ignored by the government.

    • djschultz3 says:
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      Ah yes, the Robert Goddard Symposium, where NASA civil servants get in for free and us low life contractors have to pay $750 out of pocket if we want to go. The annual reminder that they really are better than us….

      • kcowing says:
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        Then don’t go.

      • fcrary says:
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        I’m not sure I understand. I’ve never heard of a conference, even a NASA organized one, where there was no registration fee for NASA people but there was one for non-NASA people. Do you mean NASA attendees automatically get reimbursed for the registration fee and non-NASA attendees may or may not, depending on their managers’ decisions? Or am I missing something?

        • djschultz3 says:
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          NASA Goddard civil service attendees get in by flashing their Goddard badges at the door, no registration at all. There may be some contractor companies that will pay the registration fee, but none of the companies I ever worked for did that.

          • kcowing says:
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            That is something that you need to take up with your employer. Besides they webcast these things.

  2. Daniel Woodard says:
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    The shutdown is destructive and wasteful. We are not saving any money. We are letting vital work fall behind. We are making it difficult for people to even keep their families fed. And we are doing it for nothing but a political stunt with no basis in reality. At least SpaceX isn’t shut down.

    • tutiger87 says:
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      Some people do see it as productive…That’s the problem.

      • Jeff2Space says:
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        People that see the shutdown as “productive” are delusional, IMHO. In the end, we’ll pay the government workers back-pay, but we will not be able to make up for all of the work that they should have been doing. Every agency that is shutdown is going to be more than a month behind what they should have been doing.

    • fcrary says:
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      SpaceX isn’t shut down, but unfortunately they did get blown down. The Starship hopper test vehicle was apparently damaged by high winds (reported as 50 mph.) Lots of people are having bad luck this year. Although Blue Origin is an exception.

      • ThomasLMatula says:
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        Yes, but SpaceX is still moving forward with Dragon2 and the launch of the SpaceIL lunar lander. And the upgraded Falcon Heavy has arrived at the Cape for its launch.

    • ThomasLMatula says:
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      What is needed is to lock President Trump and Speaker Pelosi in a room and not let them out until they make a deal. Put one of the Surpreme Court Justices in the room as an arbitrator. Then the door is not open until a deal is signed. As it is neither one is even talking to the other.

      • Mike Oliver says:
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        Mitch McConnell has no responsibility in this??

        • ThomasLMatula says:
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          He just seems to be going with the flow so at the moment the battle is between President Trump and Speaker Pelosi. I expect he will be glad to sign off on anything they agree on. Now if Speaker Pelosi kept the House in Session (instead of giving the Representatives another 3 day weekend) and managed to get a spending bill passed with a veto proof majority it would be a different matter, but the House is not even close to passing such a bill.

  3. chuckc192000 says:
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    Not all contractors went unpaid. The TOSC contract at KSC had enough money to continue paying contract workers on some projects until Feb. 19th if the shutdown had lasted that long (working remotely from home).