12/03/2025 at 10:00AM
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, will convene a hearing to consider the nominations for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Department of Commerce at 10:00 AM EST on Wednesday, December 3, 2025.
Nominees:
- Jared Isaacman, of Pennsylvania, to be Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Steven Haines, of Virginia, to be an Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Analysis
NASA is illegally moving forward with the rapid downsizing of the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
Isaacman was nominated in the spring to be NASA administrator, with his nomination hearing on April 9th. Right before the vote on his confirmation, the White House pulled his nomination. He was renominated this fall.
Jared Isaacman made his billions as CEO of the Shift4 payment processing firm and has flown to space twice on SpaceX missions he financed himself. He co-founded Draken International, which trains pilots for the U.S. military. Isaacman is a pal and an extreme admirer of Elon Musk.
According to a recent reporting by Ars Technica, the Trump administration is looking to slash the space agency’s science budget by as much as 50 percent, which could prove disastrous for the future of space research.
You’d think that would be top of mind for Isaacman, but his head is instead blissfully empty.
“I’m a humble nominee on the outside, hoping for a chance to contribute,” he tweeted, responding to a post that referenced the news. “I don’t know anything about those supposed cuts, but the President said he’s targeting fraud, waste & abuse w/ a scalpel — not a hatchet.”
Isaacman’s confidential plans for the agency, titled Project Athena, have been circulating around Washington but not made public.
Haines is currently a senior adviser in ITA’s Office of Industry and Analysis. Haines previously spent several years at the State Department, including assignments in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs and the Office of China Coordination, as well as a posting on the Department’s Policy Planning Staff. He also worked on Capitol Hill as a Brookings Legislative Fellow with Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), focusing on trade, economic, and national security policy. He joined the State Department in 2020, during Trump’s first term, and served for three years before joining Hagerty’s staff. He rejoined the State Department this year.