scope:

Purpose

This NPR addresses NASA's responsibilities and procedures for handling correspondence and requests for information received from the U.S. Congress and for handling requests for legislative material. It does not abridge the rights of NASA employees to communicate with Congress as private citizens on their own time and without using Government resources. To ensure consistency and quality, official NASA correspondence to Members of Congress will be signed by the Administrator, Deputy Administrator, or the Assistant Administrator for Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs. The Office of Inspector General prepares and signs out its own correspondence to the Congress and is exempt from the signature policy noted here. When the Office of Legislative and Interngovernmental Affairs determines it is appropriate, Center Directors and other Officials-In-Charge may be authorized to sign correspondence to Congress.

Applicability

a. This NPR applies to NASA Headquarters and NASA Centers, including Component Facilities and Technical and Service Support Centers.

b. In this directive, all mandatory actions (i.e., requirements) are denoted by statements containing the term "shall." The terms "may" or "can" denote discretionary privilege or permission, "should" denotes a good practice and is recommended but not required, "will" denotes expected outcome, and "are/is" denotes descriptive material.

c. In this directive, all document citations are assumed to be the latest version unless otherwise noted.