This Day of Action felt different from last year’s historic event.
The difference is that this year, we have momentum. For the first time in a long time, we walked those august halls with the wind at our backs. Artemis II was a major success and generated global enthusiasm for space exploration. The public, across the political spectrum, had just been reminded of what the United States, with its international and commercial partners, can do in space. And in January, Congress delivered a resounding verdict on the Office of Management and Budget’s FY 2026 budget proposal to gut NASA and its Science Mission Directorate (SMD). The House voted 397-28, and the Senate voted 82-15 to reject the cuts. This victory was in no small part due to the tireless efforts of thousands of advocates from every corner of the nation.
That’s the mood these advocates carried onto Capitol Hill. Not desperation; momentum.
A different conversation
Last year, meetings often ended with hedged language: “We’ll see where appropriations go.” “Be prepared for cuts, but keep pushing.” This year, conversations felt more assuring of Congress’s intent to keep NASA fully funded.
Members and staff didn’t need to be convinced. Many even asked what they could do to help. And even more assured advocates that Congress would come to the rescue yet again. This was emphasized on April 22, when, during a hearing on the NASA budget with Administrator Isaacman, Chairman Brian Babin (R-TX) announced in his opening statement that “many of the proposed budget cuts [in FY 2026] were rejected by Congress previously, and [that he was] confident they [would] be rejected again.”
“We must ensure that NASA is funded at a level that allows it to pursue those missions,” Babin said.
Our message for this Day of Action wasn’t a plea for help, but instead an expression of gratitude and a call to keep moving. Our topline ask, beyond the likely rejection of the OMB proposal, was to grow the NASA topline.
The Senate’s bipartisan NASA Authorization provides a 2.5% increase in NASA’s budget, including for Science. This would largely counteract the effects of inflation. This was the baseline ask. But as 103 House Representatives and 22 Senators have argued in letters to congressional appropriators in the last two months, we are urging Congress to restore the NASA SMD budget to $9 billion, the inflation-adjusted level NASA Science was funded during the first Trump Administration.
The meetings we held were substantive. Advocates spoke about how NASA benefits their districts, their jobs, their kids, and their classrooms, and they connected with what their representatives care about: economic prosperity, technological leadership, and geopolitical imperatives for space exploration. Every conversation was different, but what tied them together was a shared conviction that the United States should continue to lead the world in the scientific exploration of space.