WASHINGTON — The Senate Commerce Committee will hold a confirmation hearing for Jared Isaacman to be NASA administrator next week after a push by industry, and even some members of the committee, to take up the nomination.
The committee announced late April 2 that it hold a confirmation hearing for Isaacman on April 9 at 10 a.m. Eastern. The hearing will also consider the nomination of Olivia Trusty to be a member of the Federal Communications Commission.
The announcement relieves some of the impatience and anxiety in the space industry, which has largely supported Isaacman’s nomination. President Trump announced his intent to nominate Isaacman in December, before taking office, and formally submitted the nomination Jan. 20. The committee, though, had not scheduled a hearing even as it took up nominations at other agencies.
Supporters of Isaacman have argued his background as a businessman and as a private astronaut make him ideal to lead NASA at a time when the agency is expected to rely even more on commercial capabilities.
“I think he’s got all the tools to be what could be the most consequential NASA administrator given the era in which we live in now,” Jim Bridenstine, NASA administrator in the first Trump administration, said of Isaacman at a conference in March.
Nearly 30 former NASA astronauts signed a letter, publicly released March 21, calling for the Senate Commerce Committee to hold a confirmation hearing “as soon as practical” on the nomination. “Jared will be able to apply his vision and business acumen to make NASA a continued leader and fulfill its mission of exploration, inspiration, and discovery while expanding commercial opportunities that benefit all Americans,” they wrote.
As Isaacman awaits confirmation, NASA is facing significant changes from the new administration, from the “fork in the road” buyout that led about 900 agency civil servants to leave and the closure of three offices at NASA Headquarters that eliminated 23 jobs. There are also concerns of larger layoffs at the agency and threats of significant budget cuts in the administration’s fiscal year 2026 budget proposal.
“I believe these actions will have devastating consequences for both the country and for NASA, and they’ve been proposed or considered while a nominee for a new NASA administrator is still awaiting confirmation,” said Rep. George Whitesides (D-Calif.), vice ranking member of the House Science Committee, during an April 1 hearing on NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.
He called on Congress to block “further structural or budgetary changes” at the agency until the Senate confirms an administrator. “In the meantime, I urge the acting NASA leadership to uphold the longstanding precedent of deferring large decisions, such as this, until permanent leadership is confirmed by the Senate.”
Isaacman has been in Washington in recent days for one-on-one meetings with senators, a standard part of the confirmation process before a formal hearing. That included Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas), who chairs the committee’s subcommittee on aviation, space and innovation, as well as the Senate Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on commerce, justice and science, which funds NASA.
Moran said in an April 1 social media post that he met with Isaacman and discussed topics such as exploration and “a shared desire to beat our adversaries back to the Moon” as well as work on science and technology at NASA.
“I am eager for the Commerce Committee to quickly conduct a confirmation hearing on his nomination to lead NASA,” Moran stated.
While the Senate Commerce Committee will hold a confirmation hearing April 9, the earliest it would likely formally vote on sending the nomination to the full Senate is the week of April 28, as the Senate will be on a two-week break in mid-April.
