Posted: Fri, Mar 11, 2005, 9:26 AM ET (1426 GMT)
NASA officials said Thursday that the agency is planning on cutting up to 15 percent of its workforce by next summer in an effort to streamline the agency and focus it on exploration initiatives. James Jennings, NASA associate administrator for institutions and management, said that up to 2,680 positions within the agency's civil servant workforce by mid-2006, a move that would save the agency as much as $268 million in pay and benefits. Most of the cuts will affect those centers that focus on aeronautics or basic research rather than exploration-related activities; politicians from states home to those centers have already been lobbying the Bush Administration to reduce or eliminate the proposed cuts. NASA plans to use voluntary buyouts and retirements to handle most of the reductions, although up to 25 percent of the job cuts could come through layoffs.

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