WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Representatives Judy Chu (D-Calif.-28) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.-30) led 41 California lawmakers in urging Director Shalanda Young of the White House Office of Management and Budget to reverse the devastating budget cuts to the Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission. Padilla, Schiff, and a bicameral, bipartisan group of lawmakers previously sent a similar letter to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson expressing concern over this decision.

The MSR mission, led by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, would launch a spacecraft from the surface of another planet and return it to Earth for the first time in human history. MSR will carry samples currently being collected on Mars’ surface by the Perseverance Rover — the completion of a decades-long project at NASA. The scientific community has identified MSR as the highest planetary science priority for the past two decades, and a recently commissioned Independent Review Board (IRB) assessment of the program’s implementation plan and management approach reiterated that MSR should be a national space exploration priority, given its scientific and strategic importance.

“We write to express our opposition to the Administration’s recent unilateral decision to prematurely move forward with budget cuts to the Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission before Congress has finalized Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations. This short-sighted and misguided decision will cost hundreds of jobs and a decade of lost science, and it flies in the face of Congressional authority,” wrote the lawmakers.

“If not reversed, this decision would ensure that JPL will not be able to meet the next launch window and will force a dramatic reduction of billions of dollars in contracts as well as the termination of hundreds of highly skilled employees,” continued the lawmakers. “If this uniquely talented workforce is lost to the private sector, it will be near impossible to reassemble. All told, these layoffs will result in decades worth of lost science, undermining the years of hard work and investments already put into NASA’s Mars Exploration Program and threatening the many years of future scientific discovery and innovation to come.”

Although the Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS) appropriations bill passed by the House Appropriations Committee recognizes this importance and provides $949.3 million for the MSR mission, equal to the President’s FY2024 Budget request, the Senate CJS bill set the funding level at just $300 million. Negotiations are still ongoing and Congress has not yet enacted final FY24 appropriations, but the Administration and NASA have already directed JPL to begin operating as though MSR’s FY24 budget has already been cut to $300 million.

In addition to Senator Padilla and Representatives Chu and Schiff, the bipartisan letter is also signed by Senator Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.) and Representatives Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.-33), Nanette Barragán (D-Calif.-44), Ami Bera (D-Calif.-06), Ken Calvert (R-Calif.-41), Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.-24), Tony Cárdenas (D-Calif.-29), Lou Correa (D-Calif.-46), Jim Costa (D-Calif.-21), Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.-10), Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.-16), John Garamendi (D-Calif.-08), Mike Garcia (R-Calif.-27), Robert Garcia (D-Calif.-42), Josh Harder (D-Calif.-09), Jared Huffman (D-Calif.-02), Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.-34), Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.-51), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.-37), Young Kim (R-Calif.-40), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.-17), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.-12), Mike Levin (D-Calif.-49), Ted Lieu (D-Calif.-36), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.-18), Doris Matsui (D-Calif.-07), Kevin Mullin (D-Calif.-15), Grace Napolitano (D-Calif.-31), Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.-19), Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.-11), Scott Peters (D-Calif.-50), Katie Porter (D-Calif.-47), Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.-25), Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.-38), Brad Sherman (D-Calif.-32), Michelle Steel (R-Calif.-45), Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.-14), Mark Takano (D-Calif.-39), Mike Thompson (D-Calif.-04), Norma Torres (D-Calif.-35), and Juan Vargas (D-Calif.-52).

Full text of the November letter to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson on the same matter is available here.

Full text of today’s letter is available here and below:

Dear Director Young:

We write to express our opposition to the Administration’s recent unilateral decision to prematurely move forward with budget cuts to the Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission before Congress has finalized Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations. This short-sighted and misguided decision will cost hundreds of jobs and a decade of lost science, and it flies in the face of Congressional authority.

The 2023 Planetary Sciences Decadal Survey identified the completion of MSR as NASA’s highest scientific priority over the next decade. MSR was also the highest priority for the previous decade. As we reflect on the amazing images of the James Webb Space Telescope and marvel at the important data garnered about the Earth from missions in the sky, we recognize the payoff when Congress and the Administration partner to support NASA Science missions. Representing years of work and prioritization among the scientific community, the decadal surveys present the Administration and Congress with critical prioritization that ensures we garner the most important discoveries possible.

For the first time in human history, MSR will launch a spacecraft from the surface of another planet and give our scientists the opportunity to directly analyze samples from Mars. The capabilities demonstrated, and science returned, by MSR would ensure American leadership with regard to Mars and pave the way for eventual human exploration of the planet. Moreover, the MSR mission is the completion of a decades-long, four-mission project at NASA to collect and return Mars samples to Earth. Right now, the samples are already being collected on the surface of Mars by the Perseverance Rover, which launched in 2020 and landed on Mars in 2021.

The recently commissioned Independent Review Board assessment of the MSR Program’s implementation plan and management approach reiterated that MSR should be a national space exploration priority, given its scientific and strategic importance. Rather than prematurely and drastically descoping the team and personnel at NASA centers, the White House and NASA must expeditiously finalize a new mission architecture. It is our understanding that the modified mission architecture would simplify the program and reduce annual costs, thereby addressing the concerns expressed about MSR in the FY2024 Senate appropriations bill and ensuring that NASA, along with its international and industry partners, can achieve this multi-decade objective previously supported and acknowledged by President Biden.

While we are extremely concerned that the Senate appropriations bill for Commerce, Justice, and Science has proposed just $300 million for the program in FY2024, House Appropriations Committee leadership continue to work closely with their colleagues in the Senate on a compromise position. It is also important to note that the House appropriations bill recognizes the critical nature of the MSR mission and would fund it at $949.3 million, equal to the President’s FY2024 Budget request.

Given the House appropriations bill’s strong support for MSR and that full-year FY2024 appropriations are not yet in place, we are gravely concerned that the Administration’s decision to reallocate funds away from the Mars program would essentially cancel this high-priority program without Congressional authorization. NASA has already directed the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which leads the MSR mission, to begin operating as though the program budget has already been cut to $300 million. If not reversed, this decision would ensure that JPL will not be able to meet the next launch window and will force a dramatic reduction of billions of dollars in contracts as well as the termination of hundreds of highly skilled employees. Already, smaller subcontracts on the project have been cancelled, impacting scores of small businesses across the country.

The impacts of these layoffs will be detrimental not just in Southern California, but throughout the U.S. as our nation loses hundreds of extremely talented professionals responsible not only for the Mars Exploration program but also important Earth science and national security missions. If this uniquely talented workforce is lost to the private sector, it will be near impossible to reassemble. All told, these layoffs will result in decades worth of lost science, undermining the years of hard work and investments already put into NASA’s Mars Exploration Program and threatening the many years of future scientific discovery and innovation to come.

This deeply misguided decision to unilaterally adjust NASA’s funding allocation for MSR violates Congress’s appropriations authority and undermines those Members who advocated for the White House’s budget request. Already, a bipartisan group of Members of Congress have written to Administrator Nelson urging that he rescind NASA’s directive and not take any further steps to lower funding for the mission until Congress enacts final FY2024 appropriations. We likewise urge the Office of Management and Budget to obtain a new mission architecture from NASA that completes the next stage of this mission, maintain the program’s budget and refrain from any premature cuts before Congress enacts final FY2024 appropriations, and ensure that sufficient funding is included in the FY2025 budget request to reflect the highest priority ranking provided by the scientific community.

We look forward to working with you as we complete Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations legislation that fully funds NASA and NASA Science – including the MSR program, promotes our national security priorities in space, and keeps the United States at the forefront of scientific and technical achievement in space.

Sincerely,

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