I’m still trying to find out more about this. But as I do I just wanted to put it on your radar because it’s completely crazy and epitomizes the Trump presidency. The National Science Foundation is already in the process of being gutted – in perhaps a not quite as drastic way as its peer biomedical agencies at NIH and elsewhere. But out of the blue yesterday word emerged that the Department of Housing and Urban Development is taking over the NSF’s building, evicting all of its more than 1800 employees. Multiple NSF employees leaked word of this yesterday to journalist Dan Garisto. After Garisto reported the information on Bluesky I independently got word of this from NSF employees and now it’s been officially announced at a press conference by HUD Secretary Scott Turner, Gov. Glenn Youngkin and GSA Commission Michael Peters.
Adding to the wildness, the top floors of the building are, according to the AFGE Local 3403 going to be retrofitted into a kind of executive mansion for HUD Secretary Turner, including an executive suite, executive dining room, reserved parking for the Secretary’s five cars, exclusive use of an entire elevator, special space for his various assistants and a planned gym for the Secretary and his family. Turner wouldn’t be the only Secretary with nice office space. But this does sound like it’s on the extreme end of the spectrum. Equally eye-catching, there appears to be no plan for where the NSF staff will go.
