BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – Some NASA employees on the Space Coast are hopeful they’ll continue working for as long as the government shutdown in Washington lasts.
Across the country, NASA said about eight out of ten employees will be furloughed, but a union president told Cape Canaveral Community Correspondent James Sparvero he expects the workers he represents will continue working.
Kevin Smith is the president of Transport Workers Union 525, representing hundreds of workers at the Cape, including firefighters.
“Currently, we are still at work and maintaining,” Smith said. “We have a level of being optimistic for the rest of the week, hoping that we don’t have any kind of a shutdown, whatsoever.”
The last time there was a government shutdown was between 2018 and 2019, when some workers went over a month without pay.
Smith said he’s not concerned that could be a possibility again for the TWU.
“As of right now, because our workforce is so highly trained and skilled, specifically, our fire departments, we’re cautiously optimistic that we’re not gonna have any issues, but Congress is still kinda going back and forth on whether that funding is gonna come through, if, in fact, the shutdown continues, but right now, we are sitting OK,” he said.
Smith said he’s more concerned with finding solutions than the politics of both parties in Washington blaming each other.
“We stopped pointing fingers a few years ago,” he said. “We’re there just to get a job done.”
And it’s those essential jobs NASA says it’s prioritizing during the shutdown, like the Artemis launches to get astronauts to the moon before China does.
Congressman Mike Haridopolos (R-Brevard County) talked to News 6 from Capitol Hill Thursday about working to end the shutdown.
“I do believe this will be a short-term situation,” Haridopolos said. “I think, hopefully, both sides will come to common sense solution so we can open the government back up. That Artemis II mission is our first time going around the moon with astronauts since 1972. That is still on schedule, nothing changes, whatsoever.”
Whenever the government reopens, stick with News 6 and ClickOrlando.com to keep you updated.