DOGE Track

Brad Smith

Executive, age 42

A healthcare executive who served in the first administration, Brad Smith kept a relatively low profile running DOGE operations within HHS. There, he mainly was involved in organizing $67 billion in cuts and the large layoffs that eliminated 10,000 positions across the various agencies within HHS. He left HHS and DOGE about a week before Elon Musk’s departure, but he has apparently returned in August to work at the State Department.

Positions

Position Notes
DOGE
Sources
DOGE 1/20/25-6/11/25 Senior Advisor «identified as dual appointee at HHS and DOGE / resigned on 6/11 and returned to State Dept in August.»
resigned from agency 6/11/25
HHS
Sources
DOGE HHS 2/XX/25-3/04/25 detailed «detail started before 2/13»
HHS 3/04/25-5/23/25 converted to permanent position Senior Advisor (volunteer) «resigned on 5/23 but returned to State dept in August»
resigned from agency 5/23/25
State
Source
State c.8/12/25 «some sort of leadership over global health division»

Events

Date Event
12/06/24
Source
An article in the NYT identifies Brad Smith as the person effectively running DOGE at Mar-a-Lago during the project’s formation and speculates that DOGE may have an early focus on healthcare for this reason. It also names Steve Davis as a close collaborator.
 Brad Smith, Steve Davis
1/12/25
Source
A New York Times report on DOGE from just before the Inauguration roughly describes the working arrangements for embedding some staff and detailing others as well as some early participants in the project
 Baris Akis, Brad Smith, James Burnham, Joanna Wischer, Marc Andreessen, Matt Luby, Rachel Riley, Shaun Maguire, Steve Davis, Vinay Hiremath
1/24/25
Source
A report from Business Insider names some of the DOGE staffers who were involved in transition activities and provides an early snapshot of who is in DOGE.
 Baris Akis, Brad Smith, James Burnham, Joanna Wischer, Katie Miller, Marc Andreessen, Rachel Riley, Shaun Maguire, Steve Davis
3/31/25
Source
Politico reports that Brad Smith, who crafted the plan to layoff 10,000 staffers within HHS, is facing criticism from other DOGE staffers for attempting to shield CMS from the brunt of the layoffs. His aide, Rachel Riley is accused of being extraordinarily secretive with the plan.
11/17/25
Source
Acting in his new capacity as a global health advisor in the State Department, Brad Smith is reportedly pressuring African nations to sign memorandums of understanding which would grant the US access to their health data for the next 25 years in return for limited health aid from the US for the next five years. This is blasted by critics as extractive and an attempt by the US to bypass the World Health Organization’s normal role in monitoring for emerging pathogens.