Under the executive order, Doge teams, which “will typically include a Doge team leader, an engineer, a human resources specialist, and an attorney” will be sent to various agencies. They will be granted “access to all unclassified agency records, software systems, and computer systems,” ostensibly in an effort to streamline data sharing among federal agencies.
A former USDS employee who spoke to Wired who was granted anonymity to preserve his privacy called reusing the digital service a “bureaucratic jiujitsu move.” But, they say, they fear that Doge’s access to sensitive information could be used to do more than streamline government operations.
“Is this technical talent going to be emphasized toward using federal government data to track down adversaries?” They ask. “To find particular populations of interest to this administration in order to target them or single them out or whatever it ends up being?”
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Are you a current or former employee with US Digital Services or another government agency affected by Doge? We would love to hear from you. Using a non-working phone or computer, contact Vittoria Elliott at vittoria_elliott@wired.com or securely at Velliott88.18 on Signal.
It seems, however, that the First Order of Doge it’s eliminating people in agencies who could push back against the Trump administration’s agenda, starting with existing USDS staffAnd Hire new people.
“Doge teams have a lawyer, an HR director and an engineer. If you were looking to identify which functions to cut, which people to cut, having a director of human resources there and having a lawyer say “this is what we are allowed to do or not to do” would be a way that you facilitate that, says Don Moynihan, a public policy professor at the University of Michigan, noting that Doge’s potential access to federal employee data could put them “in some sort of firing crosshairs.”
When Musk took over Twitter, he brought in outside help from his Cut to close as well as its other companies To transform the company, a move it seems to repeat.
Who exactly is going to be part of Doge is a particularly thorny issue, because there are technically two doges. One is the permanent organization, the revamped USD – now the American Service. The other is a temporary organization, with a termination date of July 4, 2026. The creation of this organization means that temporary DOGE can operate under a special set of rules. It can sequester employees from other parts of the government and can accept people who want to work for the government as volunteers. Temporary organizations may also hire so-called special government employees – experts in a given field who can bypass the rigors of regular federal hiring processes. They are also not subject to the same transparency requirements as other government employees.
In a best-case scenario, this would allow Doge to move quickly to solve problems and expedite needed talent, as well as build systems that make government services more transparent by facilitating the flow of information and data. But in the worst case, it could mean less transparency around the interests of people working on important government projects, while still allowing for possible oversight.
