Rep. Chu Statement on Layoffs at Jet Propulsion Laboratory

PASADENA, CA – Today, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a NASA Center administered by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), announced the reduction of its workforce by 550 employees, or approximately 11% of its total staff. This is the third round of layoffs at JPL in the past two years.

Rep. Judy Chu (CA-28) released the following statement:

“I am extremely disappointed and disheartened by the hundreds of JPL layoffs announced today, and my thoughts are with all the impacted workers and their families. These layoffs are an absolute tragedy, especially as they come at a time when our community is still recovering from the Eaton Fire that destroyed thousands of homes and disrupted so many lives and livelihoods just 9 months ago. They also come on the heels of two devastating rounds of layoffs last year of over 850 JPL employees.

This is not only a tragedy for our community, but also an immense loss for our nation. JPL is a national asset that has helped the United States accomplish some of the greatest feats in space and science for decades. Every layoff devastates the highly skilled and uniquely talented workforce that has made these accomplishments possible. Taken together with last year’s layoffs, this will result in an untold loss of scientific knowledge and expertise that threatens the very future of American leadership in space exploration and scientific discovery.

As a steadfast champion of JPL and Caltech, I have been doing everything I can to protect the workforce and fight for full funding for NASA’s programs and missions. I have repeatedly led efforts in Congress pushing for funding for critical missions like Mars Sample Return led by JPL. And as Co-Chair of the Planetary Science Caucus in Congress, I have led bipartisan appropriations requests to demand that Congress fully fund NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and protect all its missions. Most recently, I have been urging Appropriators to include language in any short-term federal funding bill that would explicitly protect NASA’s budget and missions from any cuts. I will continue working tirelessly with my colleagues in Congress of both parties and will never stop fighting to protect our nation’s space program and the expert workforce that makes it all possible.”