Democrats Call for Consistency and Balance in Implementation of NASA’s Security Practices
(Washington, DC) – Today, the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology’s Subcommittee on Space and Subcommittee on Oversight held a hearing to examine recent reports issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Office of Inspector General (OIG), and the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA). The reports are critical of NASA’s handling of sensitive information and present separate recommendations that NASA is in the process of implementing.
Ranking Member Donna Edwards (D-MD) of the Subcommittee on Space framed the issue by saying in her statement for the record, “As a civil R&D agency that supports scientific research, NASA has a culture of openness, collaboration, and sharing of results. Last year, for instance, NASA approved more than 11,000 foreign national visits to its facilities and Centers and currently maintains an estimated 600 international agreements with more than 100 foreign countries, envisioning projects which may require an exchange of information to be successful. However, the benefits of that culture of openness and sharing must be balanced with appropriate security limits and protections.”
Full Committee Ranking Member Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) agreed, emphasizing in her prepared statement the need to “find ways to enable NASA to strike a reasonable balance between information sharing and the need to safeguard any sensitive information and technologies from inadvertent disclosure.”
In discussion with the witness panel, Democratic members identified the inconsistent implementation of policies as one major source of NASA’s security problem. There also was agreement among members and witnesses that inadequate training and ineffective organizational structures have contributed to the current problems the agency is facing. Members also inquired about any cultural changes needed at NASA to allow corrective actions to take hold.
Ranking Member Dan Maffei (D-NY) of the Subcommittee on Oversight highlighted the importance of safeguarding sensitive information in his opening statement saying, “NASA leads the world in space exploration, aeronautics research, and other key scientific areas. Controlling the inadvertent release of sensitive information or intentional theft of export controlled technologies has always been a difficult task. This is particularly true when that sort of data resides in an environment that depends upon international collaborations and access to foreign scientists and facilities.”
There was considerable discussion of NASA’s progress in implementing the recommendations provided by the reports. Mr. Richard Keegan, the Associate Deputy Administrator of NASA testified that the agency is working to better train employees in dealing with protecting sensitive technologies, to enhance communication efforts to ensure consistency across all aspects of NASA’s foreign national access management, and to change NASA’s culture so the agency can appropriately address security concerns and risk management in the future. He conveyed the NASA Administrator’s strong commitment to making the necessary improvements.
Ms. Edwards said in her statement for the record, “Corrective actions will likely be difficult for the agency to implement. We will need to be vigilant to ensure that these corrective actions do not destroy NASA’s culture of openness which has proven to be a key ingredient in the agency’s success.”
In addition to Mr. Keegan, Ms. Belva Martin, Director of Acquisition and Sourcing Management at GAO; Ms. Gail Robinson, Deputy Inspector General of NASA; and Mr. Douglas Webster, Fellow at NAPA and Principal at Cambio Consulting Group testified before the subcommittees.
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