Employees at the government’s premier science agency are elevating their pushback against the Trump administration.
In a letter of dissent, 149 National Science Foundation employees expressed “deep concern over a series of politically motivated and legally questionable actions by the Administration that threaten the integrity of the NSF.”
The letter, sent Monday to House Science, Space and Technology ranking member Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), urges the committee to shield NSF employees “from politically motivated firings,” release frozen grant dollars and demand more transparency from Trump officials.
The letter was submitted as a protected whistleblower complaint, and all but one of the signatories had their names censored or signed as an anonymous member.
Hiding their identities is a step meant to protect federal workers from retaliation. It is a different approach than used in dissent letters from employee groups at EPA, the National Institutes of Health and NASA.
Earlier this month, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin put 139 employees who signed a similar letter of dissent on administrative leave for 10 days. That number has since grown to 160 staffers, and the agency has extended the leave to Aug. 1.
“It’s a deep shame that expressing support for NSF’s mission and calling attention to how recent actions betray that mission needs to be done in this manner,” Lofgren said.
The NSF dissent letter was organized by members of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union. Members of Local 3403, the union branch that represents NSF and other federal researchers and scientists, signed the letter.
NSF has already lost approximately one-third of what once was an 1,800-person workforce, said Jesus Soriano, president of AFGE Local 3403. That number includes departures through voluntary “early-out” programs and the 168 probationary staffers and experts fired in February.
Last month, NSF staffers were surprised with less than 24 hours notice that they would be evicted from their current headquarters to let Housing and Urban Development employees move in. It is still not clear where NSF will be relocated.
Lofgren during a press conference Tuesday pledged to defend NSF against President Donald Trump’s attacks.
But she said in a brief interview with POLITICO’s E&E News she’s not confident the letter will influence Trump administration policies.
“This administration does not care about science,” Lofgren said.
Reach reporter Ellie Borst on Signal at eborst.64
