NASA staff slam ‘woke’ DEI policies that cost Americans $22 million a year

NASA staff have criticized the space agency for what they have described as a “DEI takeover” that puts scientists’ “real work” at risk.

A former employee said NASA’s focus on diversity, equity and inclusion is “destroying America’s ability to compete with China in space, because the Biden-Harris administration will only fund programs that include this.”

Several disgruntled members, speaking on condition of anonymity, blamed “middle management” for the “bulls*** DEI policy.”

“The DEI stuff can create an environment where things are not focused and accountability is diluted,” said another NASA employee, who still works at the agency.

“Real scientists don’t care about DEI or any other hyperpolitical nonsense.

‘There are good scientists doing really good work there. [NASA] has become extremely bureaucratic.’

NASA spends $22.4 million a year on programs related to inclusive hiring, workforce groups and environmental justice research.

DailyMail.com discovered Millions of taxpayer dollars were spent on DEI’s data analysis and to help the agency “begin a journey to integrate and deeply embed diversity, inclusion, equity and accessibility in culture and business.”

NASA receives an average of about 0.4 percent of what the U.S. government spends annually, but still receives a budget of at least $20 billion.

Although the space agency has shelled out millions for DEI, data shows that it generated more than $75.6 billion in economic output across all fifty states and Washington DC in the 2023 fiscal year.

NASA has been engaged in DEI efforts for more than a decade, first creating the Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Implementation Plan in 2012.

Its “Strategic Plan for DEIA, for Fiscal Years 2022 to 2026” sets out four key objectives: workforce diversity; workforce equity and inclusion (employee experience); accessibility and accommodation; and DEIA integration into the NASA mission.

DailyMail.com has contacted NASA for comment.

NASA’s DEI spending from 2022 to date has largely focused on environmental programs.

More than $1 million in grants went to “assessing environmental justice in air quality,” advancing environmental justice in Los Angeles and “exploring environmental justice through open source cloud-native tools.”

One grant, worth more than $150.00, was given to Cleveland State University to improve monitoring and management of urban tree assets.

NASA has requested $22 million each year, which would specifically go toward DEI programs

Oregon State University has received a commitment of more than $450,000 to study refugee farming decisions in Uganda.

The grant description revealed that the project’s results will “directly support place-based refugee self-sufficiency information called for in the Ugandan Refugee Response Plan.”

It’s unclear how the findings would advance NASA’s goals.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of dollars were donated to the Oceanography Society for “building diversity, equity and inclusion in the ocean sciences.”

LMI Consulting received more than $2 million for NASA in 2023 to “begin a venture to integrate and deeply embed diversity, inclusion, equity and accessibility into culture and business.”

Another $3 million went to Booze Allen Hamilton in March to support NASA’s Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity DEI data analytics specialty, and $7 million was announced last month for six “minority-serving institutions.”

“What I do see is that budgets are tight (and timing and planning are taking a hit in our case),” the NASA employee said.

‘We have a difficult project in a very small window. Furthermore, I am aware that they have gone through at least two rounds of layoffs this year. I can see that they are very limited and not working optimally.

Amid this spending, employees have expressed concerns online about budget shortfalls, citing struggles with “limited resources” due to “wasteful spending.”

‘I worked for NASA and I have friends who still do. NASA has become an inefficient government bureaucracy. It’s sad, but there’s no point in denying it,” a former employee shared on X.

William F Cook wrote, “I grew up in Clear Lake and my mother worked in the space program for 35 years. Even *she* acknowledges that NASA has lost its way and seems more focused on DEI and community outreach than actually going into space.”

A Congressional Budget Office report released in July found that NASA had nine programs approved by the government for more than $25 million in 2023.

However, the deadline for these authorizations has passed, but Congress is still giving NASA money for them.

A year later, the space agency had nine more, worth more than $24 million.

“If the expenditure is not allowed, we should not spend it,” Ramaswamy wrote on X last Thursday. “That should not be controversial.”