San Gabriel Valley : House Republicans Boost JPL Expansion
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House Republicans have proposed a major NASA restructuring that would double the staff at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge, making it the country’s largest space flight center.
Under the plan proposed at a key congressional subcommittee meeting Monday, the majority of missions and employees at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., would transfer to JPL.
The JPL expansion was proposed by Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands), chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee that oversees NASA, as part of a Republican plan to cut $837 million, or 6%, from NASA’s fiscal 1996 budget.
In recent weeks, JPL employees have been bracing for layoffs--not expansion. In May, NASA officials announced that the space agency was planning its own restructuring. NASA plans to eliminate up to 29,000 jobs over the next five years; at JPL, 1,250 jobs--or 20% of the work force--would be cut.
JPL spokesman George Alexander said, “I have no way of knowing just how serious this [Republican] proposal is.”
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