MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — The top Democrat on the House Science Committee is asking NASA and other science agencies for information on how they are complying with executive orders related to diversity measures.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), ranking member of the committee, released Feb. 3 letters she sent to NASA Acting Administrator Janet Petro and leaders of the Department of Energy, National Institute of Standards and Technology, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Science Foundation about their compliance with two executive orders issued by President Trump shortly after his inauguration Jan. 20.
One order, formally designated Executive Order 14151, directed agencies to end diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and to terminate staff working on them. The other, Executive Order 14173, ended diversity and equal employment opportunity hiring programs at agencies.
Lofgren, in the letters, called the executive orders “comprehensive attacks on the ability of the federal government to promote access to scientific opportunity for all Americans,” and criticized both the orders and the agencies’ willingness to comply with them.
“I am profoundly disturbed by President Trump’s attack on American science,” she wrote in the letter to Petro. “I am also disturbed that NASA, which leads in space and Earth science, space technology, aeronautics, and human exploration, appears willing to carry out these destructive policies without pushback or protest.” She used similar language in the letters to the other agency heads.
Lofgren asked Petro to provide details on their implementation of the two executive orders, including personnel placed on administrative leave, closure of NASA offices and alternations to NASA websites. Lofgren also requested details on any modifications it has made to grants, contracts and agreements in response to the executive orders. She asked that NASA provide that information by Feb. 14.
NASA has taken several clear measures to implement the orders and related memos, such as closing its Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity (ODEO) as well as similar offices at its field centers, although the agency has not formally announced details of its implementation of the orders.
A report by 404 Media Feb. 4 stated that an unidentified group of NASA personnel were instructed Jan. 22 to “scrub” mentions of diversity and related topics from agency website that day. That was the same day that the ODEO website and others were taken offline.
Those two orders were among those cited in memos NASA sent Jan. 31 to the leadership of assessment groups and analysis groups, known as AGs, that provide input to the agency’s science divisions. The memos directed the AGs to pause their work, including planning for upcoming meetings, as NASA “continues to review and ensure compliance with presidential actions,” one memo stated.
Besides pausing work, many of the websites for AGs supporting NASA planetary science programs were taken offline Feb. 3. An example is the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG), whose content has been replaced with a single page about its status: “The LEAG website is being reviewed in response to guidance given by NASA leadership.”
