Congress
NASA’s Isaacman isn’t asking the GOP for more money
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman spoke to an influential group of House Republicans on Wednesday — but he didn’t make a pitch for more money when he walked through his agency’s ambitious plans for space.
“I’m not here asking for money,” Isaacman told GOP members during the weekly Republican Study Committee lunch, according to five people who were in the room. RSC Chair August Pfluger (R-Texas) also confirmed Isaacman’s comments while leaving the meeting Wednesday.
Isaacman’s reassurances come as NASA juggles a number of high-profile missions in the next few years, including returning humans to the moon, building a new Mars spacecraft and a lunar outpost. The NASA administrator had been set to speak to the group earlier in the year, but that meeting was canceled because of scheduling issues.
Isaacman has said in the past that the agency “does not have a topline problem” — pointing to the nearly $25 billion Congress gave the agency in 2026, plus $10 billion in the reconciliation package passed last year. He pointed to the GOP megabill as helping NASA boost its space exploration endeavors, according to three members in the room, who, like others, were granted anonymity to discuss the internal meeting.
The White House proposed a 25 percent cut to NASA’s budget in its 2027 request, but House appropriators have already released a draft bill that would restore the agency’s topline to its current level.
The Republican Study Committee, the biggest coalition in the GOP conference, has fielded previous pitches from Trump administration officials for additional funds. Rep. Brad Knott (R-N.C.), who was at the meeting, said he believed Isaacman is “the only member that came before us that has ever said we do not need any more money.”
Isaacman also gave updates on several of the upcoming NASA projects, including the Artemis program, which aims to land U.S. astronauts on the moon in 2028.
“He’s got such a vision for how to achieve space dominance, to compete with adversarial nations and the Chinese Communist Party, to bring American pride into the space race and to do it at a cost that is reasonable,” Pfluger said in an interview after the meeting.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a long time advocate for space exploration, also attended the lunch. Pfluger added that Gingrich gave credit to Isaacman and President Donald Trump for leading the charge into space.