NASA Cut Nearly 900 People, But Guess Who Got to Keep Their Job

NASA laid off hundreds at its Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2024 due to budget cuts, but its top diversity officer kept her job—just with a new title and office. The move raises questions about how federal agencies are sidestepping orders to eliminate DEI.

Key Facts:

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) laid off nearly 900 employees in 2024, cutting 13% of its workforce.
Layoffs came amid delays and budget problems with the Mars Sample Return mission.
Neela Rajendra, JPL’s Chief Inclusion Officer, was not laid off; her position was rebranded after DEI offices were officially closed.
Despite a federal ban on DEI programs, JPL created a new office with similar functions and moved Rajendra into a new role titled “Chief of the Office of Team Excellence and Employee Success.”
This happened as two astronauts remained stranded on the ISS for 9 months due to a Boeing failure—only to be rescued by SpaceX.

The Rest of The Story:

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory faced major cuts in 2024, letting go of nearly 900 staff members while struggling with delays on its Mars Sample Return program.

The layoffs affected engineers and support staff alike.

Yet Neela Rajendra, JPL’s top DEI officer, kept her job.

After Trump’s executive order eliminating DEI from government agencies, her role wasn’t cut, just reshaped.

JPL rebranded the position as “Chief of the Office of Team Excellence and Employee Success.”

This new office retained many of her past duties, including oversight of employee “affinity groups,” wellness programs, and accessibility initiatives.

While DEI language disappeared from public websites, internal emails and staffing moves suggest the programs live on—under new names.

Emails from JPL leadership reveal the new office was designed to maximize “employee success,” but outside observers argue it’s a clear workaround to Trump’s federal DEI ban.

The change followed similar moves by other institutions like PBS and the University of Michigan, which renamed DEI offices while keeping staff.

🚨🇺🇸NASA JET PROPULSION LAB CUT 900 JOBS — BUT KEPT DEI CHIEF WITH NEW TITLE

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab slashed 13% of its workforce in 2024 — nearly 900 engineers, scientists, and staff — blaming budget cuts and mission delays.

But DEI chief Neela Rajendra? Still there.

In… https://t.co/4ANifX3oqT pic.twitter.com/OhnZMW7Znl

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) April 1, 2025

Commentary:

NASA is playing word games with taxpayer dollars.

Instead of honoring a clear directive to remove DEI from federally funded agencies, JPL simply changed the name and kept the same agenda.

It’s deceitful and wasteful.

President Trump was right to issue an executive order ending DEI in government.

These programs have cost millions and delivered little beyond bureaucracy.

The space agency, of all institutions, should prioritize merit and mission success—not social experiments.

What makes this worse is that JPL laid off nearly 900 workers while keeping Neela Rajendra, a top DEI figure, on the payroll.

At a time when the agency is failing to meet mission deadlines and can’t even bring astronauts home without outside help, it chose to keep a non-essential position.

That’s disgraceful.

The incident with the stranded astronauts proves the point.

NASA couldn’t retrieve its own personnel for nine months, relying on SpaceX to do the job.

Instead of doubling down on engineering excellence and operational readiness, they funded affinity groups and diversity pledges.

Had the agency truly eliminated DEI as ordered, those funds could’ve supported critical mission technologies or preserved skilled jobs.

DEI failed the space program—it didn’t bring anyone home from orbit, and it didn’t return samples from Mars.

It just added paperwork and inflated salaries.

NASA should stop sidestepping the law and do the right thing.

Fully shut down DEI operations, reallocate funds to mission-critical systems, and return to the core values that once made it a respected institution.

The Bottom Line:

NASA’s workaround to keep DEI alive under a new name shows clear defiance of federal policy.

While laying off nearly 900 workers, the agency preserved a high-salary DEI position with minimal accountability.

This kind of maneuvering undermines public trust and mission performance.

If NASA wants to regain credibility, it must stop wasting resources on empty programs and start focusing on getting the job done right.