Keith’s note: Looks like the folks in Cleveland are taking a stand. There will be a Stop the NASA Budget Cuts Protest on Saturday, 21 June. “Thanks for RSVPing for our protest to stop the NASA budget cuts. NASA Glenn is facing a 40% workforce cut if Trump’s planned FY26 budget goes through, which means 500 career civil servants in the Cleveland area are facing layoffs. We need to show the NASA Glenn staff that we support them and we oppose these cuts!! Please don’t forget to invite your friends, family and colleagues if they’re as ready as you are to stand up and fight back for science this summer and beyond.” They are making Janet Petro’s advice and are going to Embrace The Challenge – of losing their jobs at NASA.
Biologist, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Biologist and Payload integrator, Editor of NASAWatch.com and Astrobiology.com, Lapsed climber, Explorer, Synaesthete, Former Challenger Center board member... More by Keith Cowing
I suspect the layoffs at this and other centers will be a first step. Within a few years several NASA centers will be shut down, laying off all of their remaining civil servant and contractor workers. Centers located by geographic necessity, like Kennedy in Florida will remain open. But there will be no need for places like Marshall in Alabama or Johnson in Texas when rockets and spacecraft are designed and built by ‘commercial’ suppliers, like Space X. Maybe that was Musk’s plan all along.
I know at least this is doing something but to what end? What is the strategy? If this is viewed/ dismissed as just an opportunity to bash Trump in the ” people’ s Republic of Cuyahoga County” it may have the opposite of the desired result.
Max Miller the Republican in who’s district Glenn resides voted for the budget the first time around.
All I have seen from him is pablum about brining NASA HQ to GRC. What about getting him on the record about if he will withold his vote for the budget unless the proposed cuts to GRC are changed? How about getting a pledge from Dennis Kucinich(?) not to run against Miller as an independent in the next election? That could easily narrow Miller’s margin of victory to the point where the pro GRC vote could be decisive. Remind Mr Miller that Ohio is an open primary state and the pro GRC vote could swing for or against him depending on his vote.
As much as I would wish the local populace would rally to support Science, I am not convinced that is a winning strategy. I would hope that the local media would also include the economic impact of the layoffs at Glenn on local businesses, real estate values, tax base, etc
Some people are actually doing something – standing up to be counted. You?
Hi Kevin,
Thank you so much for your insightful comment. Would you be willing to email us at standupforsciencecleveland@gmail.com for further discussion? We would love to have somebody with your deep ties to Cleveland and to NASA Glenn helping us plan and prepare.
Thank you for your time and your caring,
Stand Up for Science Cleveland
I wrote my congressmen (only the second time in my life) months ago asking him if he would vote against the budget unless GRC was protected. He didn’t answer and he didn’t vote against it. Putting pressure on Republican members of Congress is the only practical way that I see to get change. The proposed protest seems to be organized by a national group opposed to science cuts in general not a grassroots effort to help GRC. There are protests every month in Public Square in Cleveland about various topics usually with little affect. One can only hope that the Big Beautiful Bill will fall apart all on its own.