NASA staff encourage Elon Musk to 'clean house,' get agency back on track after massive DEI spend: report

NASA employees want Elon Musk to "clean house" at the agency after it has blown millions into different Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts under the Biden-Harris administration. This comes after Musk as well as Vivek Ramaswamy have been appointed by President-elect Donald Trump to run the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

According to the Daily Mail, expenditure reports showed millions of dollars being shelled out by NASA in grants for programs related to DEI. $2 million was given to LMI Consulting in order for NASA to "embark on a venture to incorporate and deeply engrain diversity, inclusion, equity and accessibility in the culture and business."

Additionally, $3 million went to consulting company Booze Allen Hamilton meant to bolster the "office of diversity and equal opportunity DEI data analytic specialty" at NASA. $7 million more was shelled out to several "minority-serving institutions."

Staffers at the agency dedicated to exploring outer space for the US government have voiced concerns over what they labeled as "wasteful spending" going to DEI. Software engineer Kyle Sorensen also told the outlet that he is hoping Musk will "clean house" when he gets into his position in the Trump administration.

One former NASA employee told the outlet, "[DEI is] destroying America's ability to compete with China in space because the Biden-Harris administration will only fund programs that feature it." NASA is usually given a budget of around $20 billion each year.

Musk posted the report from the outlet and simply wrote: "Interesting."

Former Space System Commander in the US military Rudy Ridolfi also told reporters, "[The DEI funding] is a small amount relative to [NASA's] research budget," and then added that "NASA should be conserving every dollar of their budget" because of the Artemis Program, a moon exploration program.

Musk and Ramaswamy have been tapped to lead DOGE and have promised to cut back on ineffective spending from the feds. Both have experience in business and entrepreneurship and Musk had to make major cuts at then-Twitter when he bought the social media platform.

When Trump announced the creation of DOGE, which will be a separate entity apart from the US government itself, he said, "Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies - Essential to the 'Save America' Movement."