GREENBELT, Md. — A long-time adviser to NASA and other agencies on space issues says he is concerned about moves by the administration to diminish the role of advisory committees.
Speaking at a Maryland Space Business Roundtable luncheon here July 16, retired Air Force Gen. Lester Lyles called “very worrisome” steps taken by the Trump administration to suspend or even disband advisory committees across the federal government.
Lyles has served on several of those committees, including chairing for several years the NASA Advisory Council and, during the Biden administration, the National Space Council’s Users’ Advisory Group. He also served on several Pentagon advisory committees.
Many of those committees have been put on hold or terminated since the start of the Trump administration, or had sweeping changes to their membership. Neither the NASA Advisory Council nor its committees have met since January, and NASA said it was disbanding separate advisory committees for specific scientific disciplines, like astrophysics and planetary science, that had supported the council’s science committee.
“I will tell you that I’ve been a victim of a couple of those decisions about advisory groups,” Lyles said, noting he had served as vice chair of the Defense Science Board and had also been a member of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board.
“To see those things sort of put on hold, if you will, while they are examined or their charters are reviewed is very, very worrisome,” he said. That has prompted him and others to try to help people, including members of Congress, better understand what the committees do.
“Some people think they’re just getting paid, in some cases not getting paid,” he said of committee members, “for their advice or to participate in things, and there’s no return. The return is really significant.”
The input from advisory committees is critical, he argued, at a time of upheaval in the federal workforce. “To me, it’s even more important, given what’s happening to the federal workforce, with the workforce going down in terms of talent, expertise, and experience,” he said. “Those advisory groups, peopled by the right kinds of individuals and leadership, can play a more important role.”
He added he was unsure if the NASA Advisory Council would continue when a permanent administrator is finally in place, and was also unsure about the future of the National Space Council, “though we understand there’s at least action in the White House to try to make sure it’s the revised as well and stays around.”
Lyles also said he was “very worried, very concerned” about the NASA budget request for fiscal year 2026 that proposed a nearly 25% cut in overall agency spending.
“I was really depressed, if you will, probably like a lot of you, in seeing some of the original president’s budget, but hopeful that things would change,” he told an audience from NASA and industry. He said he had been involved in various letter-writing and telephone campaigns to Congress to ask they reject the proposed cuts.
Those efforts appear to be working, with draft House and Senate appropriations bills keeping overall NASA funding relatively flat compared to fiscal year 2025. “So I’m optimistic that the congressional delegations will make sure things stay right, and NASA and space —not just civil space, national security space, commercial space writ large — will still be supported.”