Agency: NASA - Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Agency: NASA

Silencing Science Tracker

Silencing Climate Science

Federal Actions

Agency: NASA

	Date	Action	Agency	Explanation	Scientists Affected	Summary
	2019-03-11	NASA Budget Cuts Proposed for FY20	Federal, NASA	Budget Cuts	Climate, Other	The Trump administration’s FY2020 budget proposes to increase funding for NASA by 1.4 percent (compared to FY2019 levels). However, while total funding for NASA would increase, several key research programs would face cuts. In particular, the budget eliminates funding for the WFIRST space telescope, and two earth science missions.
	2019-02	NASA Pressured to Remove Climate Change Information from Website	Federal, NASA	Government Censorship	Climate	A member of the Trump administration’s National Security Council, William Happer, emailed the deputy administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, James Morehard, to complain about the inclusion of climate change information on its website.
	2019-01-15	Release of NOAA / NASA Temperature Data Delayed	DOC, Federal, NASA	Government Censorship	Climate	The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Aeronautics and Space Administration have been forced to delay release of the annual global temperature analysis for 2018 due to the partial government shutdown.
	2019-01-10	NASA Scientists Prevented from Attending Conference	Federal, NASA	Government Censorship	Other	Federal government scientists, from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and other agencies, were prevented from attending the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society due to the partial government shutdown.
	2018-09	NASA Study to Monitor Air Pollution After Hurricane Harvey Cancelled	EPA, Federal, NASA, State, TX	Research Hindrance	Other	Officials at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) cancelled a project to assess air pollution in the Houston area following Hurricane Harvey. The cancellation was ordered by the director of NASA’s Earth Science Division after officials at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality expressed concern that NASA’s project would “overlap with . . . existing efforts” to monitor pollution and would not be “useful.”
	2018-05-9	NASA Climate Research Program Cancelled	Federal, NASA	Budget Cuts	Climate	NASA cancelled its Carbon Monitoring System (CMS), a $10 million-a-year program, which provides funding for research aimed at improving the measurement of carbon stocks and fluxes.
	2018-05-30	NASA Employees Avoiding Discussion of Climate Change	Federal, NASA	Self-Censorship	Climate	Since President Trump took office, NASA staff have avoided publishing climate change information online, and discussing the topic on social media. This is reportedly due to self-censorship by career staffers who are concerned about “provoking the [Trump] administration.”
	2018-02-12	NASA Budget Cuts Proposed for FY19	Federal, NASA	Budget Cuts	Climate, Other	The Trump administration’s FY2019 budget proposes to reduce funding for NASA by 0.3% (compared to FY2017 levels). Among other things, the budget would eliminate funding for the international space station from 2025, cancel a project to upgrade communications satellites, and terminate five earth sciences research missions.
	2017-05-23	NASA’s FY18 Budget Cut by Trump Administration	Federal, NASA	Budget Cuts	Climate, Other	The Trump administration’s FY2018 budget proposes to cut funding for NASA climate and environmental research programs by 8% or $151 million.