Congress Rejects Deep Space Agency Cuts, Bringing Cautious Relief to Pasadena’s JPL After Years of Turmoil

For the thousands of local residents employed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a new federal budget passed by Congress on Thursday afternoon brings a fragile sense of stability, for now ending a period of profound uncertainty marked by mass layoffs and the looming threat of historic funding cuts. The spending bill soundly rejected a White House proposal that would have slashed NASA’s science budget by nearly half, a move that could have further devastated the Pasadena and Altadena communities that are home to the world-renowned space exploration center. 

In a decisive bipartisan vote (82–15), the U.S. Senate joined the House of Representatives in passing H.R. 6938, a major appropriations bill that funds NASA for Fiscal Year 2026. While the bill represents a near-complete political victory for space science advocates, for the local community, it signifies a crucial lifeline. The approved budget provides a degree of security to an institution that is, through its parent organization Caltech, Pasadena’s largest employer—one that has been reeling from the double blow of workforce reductions and the personal tragedy of the January 2025 Eaton Fire, which destroyed the homes of more than 200 JPL employees, many of them in Altadena. 

Averting Draconian Cuts 

The relief felt across the foothills comes from Congress’s unambiguous rejection of what The Planetary Society termed the “largest single-year cut to NASA in history.” In May 2025, the

White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) proposed a budget that would have cut NASA’s overall funding by nearly 24% and, most alarmingly for JPL, slashed the Science Mission Directorate’s budget by 47%—from roughly $7.3 billion down to $3.9 billion. 

Such a cut would have been catastrophic for JPL, which is managed by Caltech and serves as a primary center for NASA’s robotic space exploration. Instead, Congress approved a NASA budget of $24.4 billion, with the Science Mission Directorate funded at $7.25 billion, a mere 1% decrease from the previous year. 

“As Co-Chairs of the Planetary Science Caucus, we were extremely alarmed by the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) proposal to dramatically cut federal funding in Fiscal Year 2026 for space,” said Rep. Judy Chu (CA-28), whose District includes JPL. “With today’s passage of this bill, Congress has averted disaster and put the United States back on track to maintaining our preeminence in space.”

Comparison of the White House’s proposed Fiscal Year 2026 budget for NASA and the final funding levels passed by Congress. [Source: The Planetary Society, American Astronomical Society, Sen. Maria Cantwell] 

‘A Unifying National Priority’ 

The Pasadena-based Planetary Society, which led the “Save NASA Science” advocacy campaign, issued a coalition statement with 10 partner organizations following the vote. The coalition described the congressional action as a validation of an unprecedented grassroots effort. 

“The overwhelming bipartisan vote of 397-28 in the House and 82-15 in the Senate demonstrates that U.S. leadership in space remains a unifying national priority,” the coalition stated. “Americans responded with a historic grassroots mobilization: tens of thousands of people from every state and congressional district in the country, hundreds of advocates across multiple Days of Action on Capitol Hill, and roughly 100,000 messages sent to Congress.” 

Casey Dreier, Chief of Space Policy at The Planetary Society, told Nature that the bill “is ultimately a good bill for NASA science.” The coalition also confirmed that key missions will continue, stating: “With this budget, missions such as New Horizons beyond Pluto, VIPER (looking for water resources on the Moon), and the Apophis Explorer, set to study a hazardous asteroid that will barely miss Earth in 2029, will continue operations.”

However, the coalition tempered its celebration with a sobering assessment of the damage already done. “The damage inflicted on NASA and the national scientific enterprise in 2025, however, was severe,” the statement read. “The agency lost more than 4,000 civil servants and several thousand contractors, a loss that affected every NASA center and facility. Research programs were disrupted, competitive grant opportunities were slashed, and mission teams spent their time developing termination plans instead of pursuing scientific exploration. This was, in many ways, a lost year for American science.” 

Scars from Years of Uncertainty 

The funding reprieve arrives after two painful years for JPL and the surrounding communities. Since January 2024, the laboratory has conducted four rounds of layoffs, eliminating the jobs of more than 1,500 employees and on-site contractors—roughly a quarter of its total workforce. 

The cuts were a direct consequence of uncertainty surrounding the Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission. Faced with a ballooning budget and timeline, a 2023 independent review found the mission had a “near zero probability” of making its launch date. In response, NASA slashed the mission’s funding in anticipation of congressional cuts, which ultimately led to the layoffs at JPL, the primary center for the mission’s development. 

The new spending bill formally cancels the MSR program as it was previously conceived. However, in a move that provides a glimmer of hope for the future of Mars exploration at JPL, Congress allocated $110 million for a new “Mars Future Missions” program to develop technologies that could be used for a future sample return effort. 

Rep. Chu acknowledged the loss, stating,”Our nation already lost hundreds of Mars experts at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory last year due to shortsighted budget cuts to MSR, and we cannot afford to lose more. However, we are encouraged that today’s bill provides funding for future Mars missions.” 

A Community’s Resilience 

The professional turmoil of the layoffs was compounded by personal tragedy. In January 2025, the destructive Eaton Fire tore through the foothills, destroying the homes of more than 200 JPL employees and displacing many others. The fire was particularly devastating in Altadena, a town described as a “welcoming and affordable town which many JPL employees call home.” 

Caltech, which manages JPL, is Pasadena’s largest employer, with 5,500 of its 8,000 employees working at the lab. A significant portion of this workforce resides in Pasadena, Altadena, and neighboring cities, making JPL’s stability a cornerstone of the local economy. 

While the loss of the flagship Mars Sample Return mission is a major blow, the new budget provides robust funding for other key JPL-managed missions, ensuring a path forward. These include $300 million for the NEO Surveyor, a space telescope designed to detect hazardous near-Earth asteroids, and $500 million for Dragonfly, a rotorcraft lander set to explore Saturn’s moon Titan. The budget also secures funding for long-running and beloved missions like Juno, New Horizons, and the vital Earth-observing satellites that provide critical climate data.

For a community that has weathered fire and financial uncertainty, the congressional budget is more than just numbers on a page; it is a vote of confidence in the future of an institution that is inextricably woven into the fabric of Pasadena and Altadena.