April 09, 2025

Emilia Sykes joins other Dems in fight over DOGE access at NASA

WASHINGTON, D. C. - U.S. Rep. Emilia Sykes on Tuesday joined House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology Democrats in a letter asking why the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has allowed unvetted DOGE team members access to its facilities and data systems.

“The information we have reviewed of NASA’s vulnerability to DOGE-related threats is chilling,” said the letter to Acting NASA Administrator Janet Petro about efforts of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by billionaire Elon Musk.

The Congress members say they’re “highly concerned” about the threat DOGE poses to the integrity of NASA’s acquisition process and the grave harm it poses to the agency and the broader industry. Musk owns SpaceX, a major NASA contractor, that has secured billions in contracts from NASA.

“The agency has allowed unvetted and untrained individuals to obtain unprecedented access, seemingly in defiance of standard agency protocols and simple common sense,” it continues.

A response Petro issued to past letters from Democrats on the Science, Space, and Technology Committee says that DOGE-associated people at NASA are serving in an “advisory role to NASA senior leadership,” and are aligned with an office that reports to her.

“NASA expects all employees, contractors and partners to comply with Federal laws, Executive guidance, and long-established human resources, security, and ethics processes, including any mandatory training,” Petro said.

Tuesday’s letter complains that Petro’s response to their past requests for information omitted the names of the DOGE-associated people working in NASA, even though multiple press reports identified them as Scott M. Coulter, Riley J. Sennott and Alexander Simonpour.

It notes that Sennott and Simonpour previously worked for Musk’s electric vehicle company, Tesla, “highlighting the conflicts-of-interests presented by Musk loyalists at the agency.” It describes Coulter as a “failed hedge fund manager.”

The Congress members say they learned that under under NASA’s internal vetting process, which assesses a degree of confidence for each employee in terms of accessing agency data and facilities, Coulter’s “confidence value” was closer to an intern than a career employee.

“Mr. Coulter is no intern – he possesses privileged physical and IT access at NASA that extends vastly beyond what most agency employees possess, outside of the most senior ranks of agency leadership,“ the letter says. ”And the other members of the DOGE team, Mr. Sennott and Mr. Simonpour, possess confidence levels similar to Mr. Coulter’s. These confidence levels suggest an ominous possibility: namely, that none of the three DOGE team members have even completed their standard background checks, let alone the more rigorous vetting processes that would be appropriate and necessary for agency employees with far-reaching access and influence.”

The Congress members say they’re unaware of the DOGE-associated persons getting any vetting from NASA, and said the civil space agency’s data and information must “be protected from DOGE’s malign influence. The agency must assert control over this situation and mitigate any damage that has and could continue to occur.”

“Our oversight into the danger that DOGE poses for NASA is being impeded by a lack of comprehensive and transparent responses and disclosures on the part of the agency,” the letter says.

Sykes, of Akron, serves as the top Democrat on the committee’s Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight. She joined with the full committee’s top Democrat, California’s Zoe Lofgren, and the top Democrat on its Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics in the letter.

“DOGE may not currently answer to the law or the best interests of America’s civil space program, but we intend to do everything we can to make sure they answer to Congress,” said the letter.

NASA is headquartered in Washington, D.C. but it employs around 1,500 civil servants at Northeast Ohio’s NASA Glenn Research Center.

Last month, a bipartisan group of U.S. Congress members from Ohio wrote a letter that urged NASA to move its headquarters to Northeast Ohio when the lease on its current headquarters building expires. Sykes did not sign onto that letter.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine followed up with his own letter urging a headquarters move, citing the region’s low cost of living and Trump’s push to decentralize government.


By:  Sabrina Eaton
Source: Cleveland.com