IFPTE Urges Lawmakers to Stop NASA from Moving Goddard Institute for Space Studies Out of Their Offices

In response to NASA’s decision to force IFPTE-represented employees at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) to move out of their offices in New York City, IFPTE altered Members of Congress that this action is not only disruptive, but wastes federal resources and harms the critical work of these scientists.

The federal employees at GISS are represented by GESTA-IFPTE Local 29 and AFEU-IFPTE Local 30. These IFPTE members work alongside researchers at Columbia University and federal contractors to better understand the roles and interactions of the ocean, atmosphere, land, and ice in the climate system, provide publicly available climate-related datasets, and advance NASA’s Earth and Planetary science missions.  

IFPTE’s letter notes that “We have reason to believe the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (USDS or DOGE) is involved in evicting GISS from the building. The 28 NASA employees, including 21 IFPTE-represented federal employees, are being instructed to work entirely remotely and raising serious concerns about the future of climate science research and data at NASA.”

In explaining the dire consequences of GISS being dismantled as a result of the workforce being removed from its office space, IFPTE told lawmakers, “GISS plays a crucial role in climate research and monitoring, continuously delivering the GISS Surface Temperature Analysis (GISTEMP) dataset that reaches headline news worldwide every year, as well as U.S. and international scientific leadership across a wide range of Earth and exoplanet research areas. GISS’s global leadership in climate modeling and maintenance of publicly available climate-related datasets is critical for our economic security and national security, as well as for infrastructure resilience, public safety, and food security.”

Read IFPTE’s letter to House and Senate lawmakers here.