General Services Administration (GSA) has set up a technological unit that has developed main public -faced IT services such as LOGIN.GOV, Central Introduction System for main government services such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
The decision, discovered in an internal Memorandum first by Politico, was ordered by the Efficiency Department of Elon Musk (Doge) as part of the broader plans of Trump administration to reduce government spending.
Units-known as 18F was established in 2014 and played a role in many high-profile projects, including redesigning the process of filing complaints from the Department of Justice Civil Rights, as well as the free online tax service service.
18F was a cost recoverable office, which means it charged agencies for its work. “GSA 18F Funds through the Purchase Services Fund (ASF), which allows investments in the development and distribution of products and tools to be used by other agencies on a reimbursable basis,” according to its website.
The cuts were notified at 1am on Saturday morning, Politico says. They affect about 70 employees, including product and account managers, procurement specialists, user interface engineers, researchers and money, service content and designers.
18F had been the subject of ideological attacks in recent months. In February, Doge Musk director Musk retells a post that called the group “left” and claimed to “wildly destroy Trump during his first term”.
“That group has been deleted,” Musk said at the time.
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The news is followed by US digital service, which provided consultation services to Federal Information Technology Agencies, disappearing earlier this month and US Dage service was renamed. USDS fired 40 employees, while 21 resigned in protest last week, leaving less than half of its original remaining workforce.
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Unexpected movement on Ax Agency left many 18F employees in Lurch. 18F The staff alleged in an official statement that they were closed by their computers and email, leaving them “no chance of helping in a regular transition of our work”. The former staff claims that they cannot even find out where they can return their equipment due to their lack of access by email.
Meanwhile, many older leaders in the former US Digital Service claim that the rapid crossing to DOGE is bringing new risks to the Federal Systems of IT. Vivian Graubard, a founding member of the US Digital Service, alleged in a post by LinkedIn that Doge engineers were “walking inside and entering very sensitive systems without appropriate permission or verifications”.
Other commentators said fast, unexpected cuts could open the door to private sector contractors diving into the federal government. Don Moynihan, a professor at the Ford Public Policy School at the University of Michigan, claims that Doge “seems to be a temporary crew of destruction by paving the way for salesmen associated with Silicon Valley to fill the gap” and that removing “18f will make it easier.”
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About Will McCurdy
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