Activities at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, are facing intense scrutiny from Congress, as lawmakers are urging the space agency's Office of Inspector General (OIG) to intervene. A recent letter from Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), who serves as the ranking Democrat on the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, demands that NASA immediately halt its ongoing facility closures during the current government shutdown.
The letter references a previous investigation conducted by Space.com, which revealed that NASA has been prematurely and potentially illegally implementing President Trump's 2026 budget request. This has been manifested through the dismantling and closing of critical laboratories and offices at the Goddard center. In her letter, sent on November 10 to NASA's Acting Administrator Sean Duffy, Lofgren has given NASA a strict 24-hour deadline to confirm that all lab closures and workspace relocations have been suspended.
Lofgren's correspondence emphasizes the urgency of the situation, stating that NASA must cease its activities at Goddard and submit to oversight from Congress and the OIG. She warns that continued actions could lead to irreversible damage to the agency's scientific capabilities, resulting in severe and lasting consequences for NASA's mission.
In the lead-up to the government shutdown, the administration at Goddard announced an expedited implementation of the center's 20-year Master Plan. This plan outlines significant renovations, demolitions, and constructions intended to progressively upgrade the campus through 2037. However, as nearly 15,000 NASA employees nationwide were placed on furlough due to the shutdown, select groups at Goddard were granted temporary excepted status, allowing them to return to work for the purpose of packing up their offices and laboratories swiftly.
Reports indicate that entire buildings have been secured and marked for divestment, with more labs being designated for abandonment since the initial report by Space.com. Alarmingly, as many as 13 major campus facilities are projected to be closed by March 2026.
Project scientists involved with NASA's next-generation Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which is expected to rival previous discoveries made by the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes, have expressed concerns over the rushed timeline. They were reportedly given only four days to vacate a mission-critical laboratory, with the deadline set for November 12. One scientist voiced their frustration, stating that millions of dollars' worth of equipment is at risk of being abandoned without proper justification.
Lofgren's letter underscores the necessity for NASA to halt its current actions at Goddard and provide a thorough explanation to Congress regarding its decisions. Moreover, she has requested a full accounting of the damage inflicted on the center thus far, giving NASA a seven-day timeframe to respond. Both the House Science Committee and NASA's OIG will be reviewing the findings of this situation.
During a briefing on November 4, NASA's legislative officials and Goddard leadership attempted to justify these moves as mere implementations of the Master Plan. However, Lofgren refuted these claims, labeling NASA's failure to disclose the extent of the ongoing activities at Goddard as a significant oversight. She criticized the agency for rapidly accelerating the evacuation of facilities during the government shutdown, which poses a risk to the scientific capabilities of NASA.
Lofgren firmly rejected the notion that the abrupt relocation of employees and valuable equipment could align with any legitimate plan. Her letter further critiques NASA's reasoning that the consolidations are in line with agency priorities, suggesting that these priorities threaten to undermine NASA's scientific integrity and the United States' leadership in space exploration.
This intervention represents the first formal oversight action from the House targeting NASA's internal restructuring at Goddard, complementing a Senate report from September titled The Destruction of NASA's Mission. This report alleges that the agency's reorganization efforts are being implemented in violation of legal protocols to align with President Trump's fiscal year 2026 budget proposal.
