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Under the executive order, DOGE teams, which “will usually include one DOGE Team Leader, one engineer, one human resource specialist, and one lawyer” will be assigned to different agencies. They will be given “access to all anonymous agency records, software, and IT systems,” apparently with the goal of facilitating data sharing across federal agencies.
A former USDS employee who spoke to WIRED anonymously called the Digital Service overhaul an “A+ jiu-jitsu move.” But, he says, he is worried that the DOGE’s access to information could be used for more than just running the government.
“Should this technology be used by the federal government to track down the defendants?” he asks. “Looking for people who are interested in this organization for the purpose of tracking them or selecting them or anything that can be done?”
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It seems, however, that DOGE’s first order and remove people from organizations who might push back against the Trump administration’s agenda, starting with existing USDS employeesand hire new people.
“The DOGE team consists of a lawyer, an HR director, and an engineer. If you’re looking to identify cut jobs, people to cut, having an HR director there and having a lawyer say, ‘Here’s what we’re allowed to do or not do,’ would be one way to help that happen,” said Don Moynihan, professor of public policy. at the University of Michigan, saying that DOGE’s access to federal employees’ data could put them “in some kind of a position to be fired.”
After Musk took over Twitter, he brought in outside help from him near his other companies change company, a move he seems to repeat.
Who exactly will be part of DOGE is a very difficult issue because there are technically two dogs. One is a permanent agency, the reformed USDS – now the US DOGE Service. The other is a temporary agency, which has an end date of July 4, 2026. The creation of this agency means that the interim DOGE can operate under special laws. It can recruit workers from other parts of the state, and also admit people those who want to work in the government as volunteers. Temporary agencies can also hire what are known as special civil servants – specialists in a given field who can bypass the problems of regular government. They are no longer subject to transparency requirements like other public servants.
In the best case, this will allow the DOGE to move quickly to solve problems and accelerate the necessary talent, as well as build systems that make public services easier by supporting the flow of information and data. But at its worst, this can mean that there is no transparency about the interests of the people who carry out important public functions, and that it leads to oversight.
