The likely next NASA administrator has little interest in closing down centers, eliminating programs or slashing staff, President Trump’s pick to lead the space agency told lawmakers in a confirmation hearing Wednesday.
Jared Isaacman, who Trump nominated earlier this year before withdrawing his name over the summer and resubmitting this fall, attempted to put some distance between his vision for NASA and the Trump administration’s budget proposal to gut the agency. He also said his own previous ideas to outsource significant portions of NASA’s work and shutter some facilities were only meant as a draft proposal and stressed he had no desire to oversee dramatic reductions.
NASA has shed 4,000 employees since Trump took office in January, or about 20% of its workforce, primarily through the governmentwide offer for employees to take months of paid leave before exiting the federal service. It also oversaw a small reduction in force of a couple dozen staff. Isaacman did not comment directly on the cuts during his hearing before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, though he alluded to ways to rebuild the workforce.
“Some of the most talented people in America show up to work at NASA,” Isaacman said. “Alongside a reinvigorated culture and intense focus on achieving the near-impossible—what no other organization is capable of or dares to accomplish—we will achieve these objectives.”
He suggested NASA has lost key parts of its workforce and such skill gaps would no longer be tolerated.
“We will never accept a gap in capabilities again,” Isaacman said, “not with our space station presence in low-earth orbit or our ability to send American astronauts to the moon.”
He added his focus on separating NASA from the work of private industry—where employees sometimes gravitate because of “appreciating stock options and such”—would serve as a natural pull toward government service.
“I think NASA should constantly be recalibrating to work on that near-impossible, what no one else is doing, which is going to…attract that kind of talent to work on that exciting technology,” Isaacman said.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who chaired the hearing, called it “essential” to preserve NASA’s talent.
“Investments in hardware alone won’t guarantee mission success,” Cruz said. “Equally indispensable is NASA’s workforce.”
The administrator-designate, a billionaire businessman and pilot who has led several SpaceX missions, saw his original nomination to lead NASA withdrawn in May after Trump reportedly took issue with his previous donations to Democrats and his relationship with Elon Musk. Committee members on Wednesday expressed confidence Isaacman would be confirmed by the full Senate by the end of the year and possibly as soon as next week.
Trump has proposed slashing NASA’s budget by 24% in fiscal 2026, including by gutting science programs. Isaacman told lawmakers he supports earth and space science and noted that while he supports the general goal of deficit reduction, “a lot has changed” since the budget was released. Congress appears poised to reject Trump’s proposed reductions, as both the House and Senate appropriations bills would keep the agency’s funding largely flat. It also added billions of dollars in spending for NASA as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act earlier this year.
“In terms of dollars allocated from Congress, we will absolutely maximize the scientific value of every one of them,” Isaacman said.
Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., asked whether the nominee stood by a document that Isaacman prepared for Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy when he was previously under consideration for the job that laid out some drastic changes to NASA’s operations, noting the reforms would lead to cutting thousands of civil servants. Isaacman said the document was a draft that he always intended to update as he held discussions with NASA leadership, the agency’s employees and lawmakers. While he said he stood by the outline, he vowed not to implement any of it without getting more feedback.
He added he was not taking the job to close any centers or disrupt essential programs.
“I’m here to bring urgency and extreme focus to the mission, to do all I can working with the best and brightest at NASA to lead humanity’s efforts to unlock the secrets of the universe and ensure American leadership across the last great frontier,” he said.
NASA has received pushback from Democrats in recent weeks for its efforts to shutter facilities at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. Drastic cuts at Goddard over the past few months have led to the quick closure of buildings, relocated facilities and costly scientific equipment being tossed or abandoned in hallways.
“If you ask me, I think Goddard is very important to spearheading the scientific efforts of NASA,” Isaacman said when asked about the changes.
He suggested taking steps like those to consolidate the Goddard campus would go against his vision for the agency.
“I’m not here for personal gain, to favor or enrich contractors, to close centers or disrupt programs that are essential to completing America’s objectives in space,” Isaacman said.
