Business
Musk Quietly Inserts DOGE Across Federal Agencies In Move That Could Uproot $162,000,000,000 Govt Industry
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Emily Kopp
As federal employees launched protests of entrepreneur Elon Musk’s disruption of federal agencies last week, the Office of Personnel Management quietly released a memo shoring up the formal structure of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
An OPM memo dated Feb. 4 seeks the redesignation of chief information officers across the government from career positions to political appointees. OPM has recommended that every agency send a request to OPM to reclassify its CIO role from career reserved to “general” by Feb. 14.
The new CIO positions will be working with DOGE, a source familiar confirmed to The Daily Caller News Foundation.
The new memo gives the greatest detail about how DOGE will operate within the federal government since a Jan. 20 executive order. Yet it has been entirely overlooked by the legacy press, which has relied largely on career officials within the government who characterize DOGE’s actions as extra-governmental. Democrats like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have sought to portray the effort as a “coup.”
However, the memo shows that DOGE is attempting to regularize its operations within the federal government.
“It is a focus of President Trump’s administration to improve the government’s digital policy to make government more responsive, transparent, efficient, and accessible to the public, and to make using and understanding government programs easier,” the memo reads.
Unlike most major institutions, the federal government has no central IT department. Instead, IT responsibilities are dispersed across federal agencies which in turn spend billions on contractors and disparate artificial intelligence technologies. Musk’s housecleaning could reshape this $163 billion industry.
DOGE is the renamed U.S. Digital Service. The U.S. Digital Service is a small office within the White House created to build the health care exchanges under the Affordable Care Act and advises on technical strategy. How the DOGE office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building will liaison with CIOs throughout the government is not yet clear.
A Washington Post report revealed Monday that Edward Coristine, the 19-year-old DOGE team member known online as “Big Balls,” has been stationed at the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Technology. The Bureau of Diplomatic Technology provides IT services.
The memo states that the new DOGE-aligned CIOs will take on a major role in public policy on technology.
The memo gives some insight into what they will prioritize, like improving government procurement policies and privacy, and deprioritize, namely diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
“Poor technology-procurement policies can endanger property and privacy rights. Inadequate security policies can lead to vulnerabilities and hacks,” it states. “Emphasis on policies like [Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility] siphons labor and resources from other core government objectives.”
The Biden administration helped lay the groundwork for the change. Two earlier OPM memos cited in the Feb. 4 memo broadened the authority of government appointees to look outside of government for highly technical roles, including one released in the final months of the last administration.
A 2018 OPM memo under the first Trump administration noted “severe shortages of candidates and/or critical hiring needs” for STEM and cybersecurity. A September 2024 memo released under the Biden administration noted that “severe shortage of talent” in cybersecurity and other high-tech sectors persisted.
The new memo states that moving certain CIO positions away from career positions could help to alleviate it by dramatically increasing the number of candidates available to fill these important roles.
The move is in keeping with public statements about DOGE made by Musk and former DOGE co-lead and potential Ohio gubernatorial hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy about improving the federal government’s tech infrastructure, including examining the vendors the U.S. government works with and the fact that these systems don’t communicate across agencies.
Musk’s biography on his website X reads “White House Tech support.”
“My preferred title in the new administration is Volunteer IT Consultant,” Musk wrote on X on Dec. 9. “We can’t make government efficient & fix the deficit if the computers don’t work.”
“The federal government is the world’s largest IT customer… In theory, this *should* give us great buying power to negotiate good deals for taxpayers, but of course that’s not what happens,” Ramaswamy said on Dec. 5. “If the federal government were serious about reducing costs, it would procure government-wide licenses.”
Despite the intense focus on DOGE, there has been little discussion of the federal government’s existing methods for managing data and records.
The top five contractors on IT together took in $45 billion in 2024, according to Washington Technology, a trade publication that uses federal procurement data, USASpending.gov and company Security and Exchange Commission filings.
Musk’s SpaceX was the 39th largest federal contractor in government technology at approximately $1 billion. That represents about one third of Musk’s reported $3 billion in contracts with the U.S. government. Musk’s contracts in IT include the delivery of Starlink satellite internet units and services to national and state parks and the State Department, and the provision of a satellite network called Starshield to the U.S. Space Force.
While Musk’s potential conflicts have been in the spotlight, all of the top five current contractors on government IT have either a former government official or member of Congress on their boards of directors, and sometimes multiple government officials. They include a former admiral, a former Pentagon acquisitions official, joint chiefs of staff leadership, a former deputy secretary of defense, and a former chair of the Armed Services Committee.
In addition, all of these companies use various artificial intelligence technologies across all of their federal contracts, many of them non-open source.
Musk and DOGE were dealt a setback on Saturday when District Judge Paul Engelmayer ordered a temporary stop on DOGE’s work with U.S. Treasury data, citing cybersecurity concerns. The suit was filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James and 18 other state attorneys general.
A Washington Post story reported Friday night that Booz Allen Hamilton had described the DOGE team’s access to Treasury data — reportedly “read only” access that doesn’t allow for data manipulation — as “the single greatest insider threat risk the Bureau of Fiscal Services has ever faced.”
The company put out a statement hours after the assessment became public.
“Booz Allen did not conduct a threat assessment or make recommendations regarding DOGE,” a statement read. “Commentary provided in a draft document by a subcontractor contained unsubstantiated personal opinions. … Booz Allen has terminated the subcontractor.”
Booz Allen Hamilton is the government’s fourth largest contractor on IT issues, taking in $8.2 billion in 2024.
From LifeSiteNews
“How is there no conflict of interest with Mary Simon, especially? This is very similar to Freeland sitting on the WEF board?”
Canada’s governor general, who is keeping Parliament closed on behalf of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, is a member of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, an organization named after Justin’s father that was founded in part by his family.
According to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation website, Governor General of Canada Mary Simon, who has been keeping Parliament suspended at the request of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, is a mentor for the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation.
The website lists Simon as a “champion of the social, economic, and human rights of Canadian Inuit people, she shares with the Foundation community the experience she acquired in senior leadership positions in various land claims organizations.”
The Trudeau Foundation labels itself as “an independent and non-partisan charity established in 2001 as a living memorial to the former prime minister.” However, the foundation is under investigation after it received a large donation alleged to be connected to the Chinese Communist Party.
Simon now serves as Canada’s Governor General, the federal representative of the Canadian monarch. As such, Trudeau’s request to suspend Parliament to allow for a Liberal leadership race was approved by Simon before taking affect.
Parliament has now been closed for over a month, since January 6, and is scheduled to remain closed until March 24, despite calls from both Canadians and politicians to reopen the legislature.
Currently, Canada is unable to fully address issues facing Canadians, including U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats. Regardless of this, Trudeau has refused to reopen Parliament, a decision enabled by Simon.
Many online have pointed out that Simon’s role in the Foundation could cause conflict of interest when dealing with Trudeau.
“Friendly reminder that the Governor General of Canada, Mary Simon, is a member of the Trudeau Foundation,” one user wrote on X. “Has any Member of Parliament raised this as an issue of conflict of interest?”
“The Trudeau foundation along with Trudeau must be investigated,” another declared.
“How is there no conflict of interest with Mary Simon, especially? This is very similar to Freeland sitting on the WEF board?” he questioned.
In addition to being a mentor for the Trudeau foundation, records reveal that the Trudeau government increased Simon’s 2025 salary to $378,000 following the $15,200 increase. Simon’s salary has increased by $49,300 since she took office in 2021.
“Can anyone in government explain how Canadians are getting more value from the governor general, because her taxpayer-funded salary just increased by more than $1,200 a month,” Canadian Taxpayer Federation Federal Director Franco Terrazzano said.
From LifeSiteNews
Expenditures include $2 million for “sex change” operations in Guatemala, $20 million for a Sesame Street-type children’s show in Iraq, $7.9 million to train media in Sri Lanka not to use “gendered” language, $1.5 million for LGBT activism in Jamaica, $3.9 million for LGBT activism in Macedonia, and even $10 million for meals for the Nusra front, an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group in Syria.
U.S. Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) took to the Senate floor to detail just some of ways the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has been using American taxpayer dollars without the public’s knowledge or approval, making the case that it more than vindicates the Trump administration’s foreign aid freeze.
The Trump State Department recently issued a 90-day freeze on foreign aid disbursed through USAID, citing millions in waste and ideologically-biased programs. With exceptions for certain food programs and military aid to Israel and Egypt, the pause is meant to give the administration time to conduct a more thorough review of foreign aid to determine what permanent cuts should be made.
On February 6, Kennedy highlighted several examples of USAID funding uncovered by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) advisory group, which dramatically contrast with the popular assumption that USAID merely offers help to the poor and sick around the world.
Musk “found that USAID gave money to support electric vehicles in Vietnam—our money, taxpayer money,” Kennedy said. “He found that USAID gave money to a transgender clinic in India. I didn’t know that. I bet you the American people didn’t know that.
“He found that USAID gave $1.5 million to a Serbian LGBTQ group,” he continued. “They got $1.5 million to ‘advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities.’ What else did Mr. Musk find that my colleagues don’t want to talk about?”
Other expenditures include $2 million for “sex change” operations in Guatemala, $20 million for a Sesame Street-type children’s show in Iraq, $7.9 million to train media in Sri Lanka not to use “gendered” language, $1.5 million for LGBT activism in Jamaica, $3.9 million for LGBT activism in Macedonia, and even $10 million for meals for the Nusra front, an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group in Syria.
“We’re not talking Cub Scout troops here,” Kennedy said of $122 million that USAID distributed to groups linked to terrorism, including “organizations in Gaza controlled by Hamas […] Why? Why? Why aren’t my colleagues talking about that? Can anyone answer that? Recipients of the money they found have, quote, ‘called for their lands to be cleansed from the impurity of Jews.’ That’s who we’re giving foreign aid to?”
“This has been going on for a week,” Kennedy told his colleagues. “People have been screaming like they’re part of a prison riot. ‘Oh, my God, look at what Musk is doing. He’s looking at the spending.’ And I’ve listened to people talk about the process and debate whether it’s constitutional and discuss how many lawyers can dance on the head of a pen. But you know what? I haven’t heard one single person who’s upset with President Trump or Mr. Musk talk about what he’s found.”
“Now, I am not saying everything that USAID does is wasted, but I am saying a lot of it is—a h-ll of a lot of it is—and we ought to be on the floor of this United States Senate thanking Mr. Musk, and we ought to be asking him to go through every agency and look at everybody’s budget—everybody’s budget,” the senator said.
As LifeSiteNews previously covered, the Biden administration also directed millions of dollars to pro-abortion organizations through USAID. Over the weekend, however, a federal judge temporarily blocked the administration from putting USAID employees on paid leave, in which critics are calling a particularly extreme case of judicial overreach.
The Great Exodus from the Net Zero Banking Alliance has arrived
Trudeau Liberals pledge $41.5 million for over 100 pro-2SLGBTQI+ projects
The Limping Loonie: Are Canada’s Pro Sports Team In Trouble Again?
Human population set to decline for the first time since the Black Death
-
Energy2 days agoLATE TO THE PARTY: Liberal Resource Minister Minister Suddenly Discovers Canada Needs East-West Pipeline
-
Break The Needle1 day agoCanada-US border mayors react to new border security initiative
-
Business2 days ago‘The DNA Of Our Foreign Policy’: How USAID Hid Behind Humanitarianism To Export Radical Left-Wing Priorities Abroad
-
Business1 day agoTrump imposes 25 percent tariff on all foreign steel, aluminum imports
-
Alberta1 day agoAlberta calls for tough-on-crime approach from feds
-
espionage1 day agoCanada Election Monitor Detects PRC Cyber-Attacks on Liberal Leadership Candidate Freeland
-
COVID-191 day agoUSAID directed over $200 million to gain of function research leading up to SARS-CoV outbreak
-
International1 day agoDonald Trump reaffirms intention to buy Gaza and annex Canada