NASA’s internal restructuring efforts at its Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland have sparked a formal Congressional inquiry, with lawmakers accusing the agency of prematurely implementing elements of President Trump’s 2026 budget proposal before congressional approval.
In a letter sent Nov. 10 to Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), ranking member of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, ordered NASA to “immediately halt” all facility closures, relocations, and laboratory dismantling at Goddard, warning the moves could cause “severe and lasting consequences” to NASA’s scientific capabilities.
Lofgren gave NASA 24 hours to confirm that all closures have ceased and seven days to provide a “full accounting of the damage inflicted on Goddard thus far.” She also called for an investigation by the NASA Office of Inspector General (OIG).
“This all must end now,” Lofgren wrote. “NASA needs to stop what it is doing at Goddard, explain itself to Congress, and convincingly justify its actions before it can even think about continuing to move forward.”
The order follows reports that, during the ongoing government shutdown, Goddard administrators have been locking down and clearing out multiple laboratories under the center’s 20-year “Master Plan.” According to Space.com, as many as 13 major facilities have been marked for closure by March 2026, with employees ordered to pack up labs within days despite being on furlough.
Scientists working on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, one of NASA’s flagship astronomy missions, said they were given just four days to empty a key laboratory. One Goddard researcher told Space.com, “There’s potentially millions of dollars of equipment that is being planned to just be abandoned in place.”
Lofgren sharply criticized NASA officials who characterized the closures as routine facility modernization. “I reject the explanation that abruptly and haphazardly uprooting employees and millions (at least) of dollars of equipment without a destination or technical justification could reasonably be considered in alignment with any existing ‘plan,’” she wrote.
She further accused NASA leadership of using the government shutdown to accelerate facility closures, calling it “a grave error” and an attempt to “eviscerate NASA science, gut its workforce, and threaten the United States’ leadership in space.”
The confrontation marks the first formal House oversight action on NASA’s internal restructuring, following a Senate report in September titled “The Destruction of NASA’s Mission,” which also alleged illegal pre-implementation of the FY 2026 budget.
If NASA fails to comply, the issue could trigger an OIG probe and expanded Congressional hearings into whether agency leadership violated appropriations law by advancing unapproved budget directives during a federal shutdown.
