Power Grab/Fire anyone who can stop him
Trump signs a second order stripping union rights from NASA, the National Weather Service and other agencies
Executive Order 14343, signed August 28, 2025, extends the March national-security exclusion from federal labor law to more agencies, minutes after a Labor Day proclamation.
What happened
On August 28, 2025, Trump signed Executive Order 14343, extending the March national-security exclusion from federal labor law to NASA, the U.S. Agency for Global Media and the International Trade Administration. It also covers the Patent and Trademark Office’s patents operation, NOAA’s National Weather Service and satellite service, and Bureau of Reclamation hydropower units.
The order was published minutes after Trump’s Labor Day proclamation. It declared that each agency has intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative or national-security work as a primary function. It also extended the deadline for the Defense and Veterans Affairs secretaries to exempt subdivisions under the earlier order.
By then several agencies, including HHS, had begun formally terminating union contracts under the March order despite pending lawsuits. The Ninth Circuit had signaled it would reconsider letting that order take effect. The union representing NASA engineers said the move was retaliation for its lawsuit.
Who benefited
Agency leadership at NASA and NOAA, both carrying out reductions in force, could now do so without bargaining. The White House removed unions that had sued it. The timing, alongside a Labor Day proclamation, showed who held the power.
Who wanted something
The Office of Personnel Management and OMB, which were directing workforce cuts across these agencies, wanted the national-security rationale expanded before courts ruled on the first order. The president of IFPTE said the targeting of NASA followed his union’s suit.
Who lost out
Weather forecasters, patent examiners, NASA engineers and dam operators lost bargaining rights and grievance procedures during a period of layoffs. AFGE says about a third of them are veterans. The public lost a check on staffing cuts at agencies that forecast storms and run hydropower.
Why it matters
The National Weather Service is now classed as a national-security agency so that its workers can be stripped of union rights. No court had stopped the first order. Each expansion leaves fewer federal employees able to resist politically driven cuts.