NASA Armstrong Internal Email: Latest on Executive Orders Etc.

Keith’s note: this email “Latest on Executive Orders, Etc.” was sent to the NASA Armstrong workforce by Center Director Brad Flick on 24 March 2025 . Of all the NASA center directors, this guy sees to be among the few who understand the notion of transparency and respect for his workforce by telling them all that he can tell them. Kudos. Full memo below.

Latest on Executive Orders, Etc.
Mon 3/25/2025

Flick, Bradley C. (AFRC-100)
To AFRC-DL-Public

Hey all, I want to update you all on some of the latest Executive Order compliance activity. Since we don’t have a Town Hall this week, I’ll resort to using email. As always, you can contact me directly or send an Ask the Director question on Inside Armstrong if you have a topic I don’t hit.

I’ll start with kudos to everyone involved in reviewing our contracts and grants. For those who don’t know, we’re evaluating every NASA active procurement for alignment with administration objectives. Thousands of them on a very short timeline. We’re on track to get it all done on time this week. Thanks to you all.

Next is the always-popular topic of “5 things I did last week”. The Acting Administrator will continue to submit a list of accomplishments to OPM on behalf of the agency and I will continue to do the same on behalf of the center. Recall that when Janet communicated this approach, she did so while stating that NASA relies on its management structure to monitor and assess employee performance. That’s our appraisal system and other mechanisms we use to communicate our activity with our supervisors. To facilitate that internal communication, the OCIO developed a reporting tool and emailed a link to all NASA CS employees last Friday. It’s straightforward and easy to use. We’re not mandating or requiring it, but I strongly encourage you all to use it unless you and your supervisor have a better system already in place. It’s a good way to let your boss know what you did and is also a good record when you to pull yearly accomplishments for your self-assessment at appraisal time. The data stays internal to NASA, but you get an email documenting your input. If you want to comply with the OPM request for individual accomplishments, simply forward that email to [email protected]. Again, we’re not mandating you take that step, it’s completely voluntary. One very important note is that you NOT include any CUI content in your activities, as stated in the OCIO rollout of the tool.

My third topic is the Agency RIF and Reduction Plan required by the EO titled, “Implementing The President’s “Department of Government Efficiency” Workforce Optimization Initiative”. The first deliverable, “Phase 1” was submitted to OPM and OMB last week. I saw the content along with the other Center Directors last Friday. I’m not at liberty to divulge the content, but I’ll say it was very high level and focused on our intended objectives of reducing bureaucracy, flatting the organization, focusing NASA on what we are uniquely positioned to do, while commercializing where possible to stimulate industry, and aligning decision authority with organizational roles. Those are all things we should be doing whether told to or not. Now the harder work starts, which is generating the implementation plan (Phase 2), with a detailed plan due April 14. Bob Pearce, AA for ARMD, was asked to lead the Phase 2 team. I can only say that all options are on the table, but decisions will be aligned with the objectives I listed. I’ll share more when I can.

Lastly, we submitted a short list of critical hiring needs. The list did not include every open position or every position the orgs identified as critical, but I think we requested the most critical of the bunch. I hope to learn soon whether we can proceed.

Have a good week and stay safe out there.

Brad