Aug 2025

Thomas Shedd leaves role as Chief Information Officer at DOL

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting issues a press release announcing that it has commenced an orderly wind-down due to the elimination of funding from both the recissions package as well as the budget for next year. A majority of staff will be let go on the September 30, 2026 with a small team retained for final closedown in January 2026. This is frankly a heartbreaking outcome for an agency that has served America for almost 60 years.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics releases a monthly jobs report for June that radically revises down the previously released estimates for May and June by roughly 80-90% compared to prior estimates, shocking economists and Wall Street. This downward revision could reflect issues in data collection or that the economy is entering a recession. Angry at what he calls “rigged” numbers, Trump fires the head of the BLS.

The SEC announces the creation of an AI task force and the creation of a new Chief AI Officer role helmed by a career SEC staffer.

Senator Ed Markey sends a letter to the Kelly Loefler, Administrator of the SBA, demanding more details by August 8th on DOGE’s access to SBA systems.

SEC leadership meets with DOGE representatives Jonathan Mendelson and Christopher Sweet to discuss using Sweet’s AI tool to identify regulations to cut or modify at the agency. It’s unclear if Sweet is detailed to the agency or just demonstrating the tool to SEC staff. Reportedly, agency staff then used the tool to identify thousands of regulations to cut. The list will then be reviewed by agency leadership and lawyers.

At least 19 states confirm that the Department of Justice has requested their voter registration lists and records from the 2024 and 2020 elections. At least seven states have reported that DOJ proposed an information-sharing agreement related to election fraud. States have not traditionally shared such information in the past, and there are concerns that this will be used in a fishing expedition for crimes or that the data will not be properly protected. This effort echoes an assertion in May by Antion Gracias that DOJ had asked DOGE to find “10-20 cases of alleged noncitizen voting in every state.”

Brooks Morgan leaves role at Ed. (exits govt. service)

The National Weather Center announces it has approval to hire 450 meteorologists, hydrologists and radar technicians back to the department. This includes 126 new positions beyond what was cut by DOGE. Despite being a step towards restoration, this action will likely not put people in place until after the current dangerous hurricane season is over and it might be a pretext to hire more politically-aligned staff in positions with flimsier job security.

Nate Cavanaugh leaves role at GSA (exits govt. service)

Nate Cavanaugh ends detailed position at DHS (exits govt. service)

Nate Cavanaugh leaves role at ICE (exits govt. service)

OPM announces the end of the requirement that all federal workers must send in a weekly “Five Things” email describing their work the prior work. OPM director Scott Kupor announced the change in a meeting with all human capital officials across the government.

The Press Secretary for the Pentagon affirms to reporters that DOGE is going to continue its work at the agency for the forseeable future.

Following an internal validation process, the IRS sends information on 47,289 (3.7%) individuals included in the original request of 1.28 million records made by ICE. After rejecting 2.6% of the original records as insufficient under the terms of the data-sharing agreement, IRS processes attempted to match the rest of the records to individuals through either their Taxpayer Identification Number (usually the same as their Social Security Number) or their address. Out of the matches found by the IRS, 42,695 records (90.3%) were retrieved with TIN matching. Regardless of which method was used, matching was only allowed if ICE provided a last-known address for the individual.

Akash Bobba converted to permanent position at OPM

The IRS Commissioner, Billy Long, is reportedly ousted by the Trump Administration after refusing to fully comply with a DHS request for confidential taxpayer information on 40,000 names of suspected undocumented immigrants. This request was for addresses as well as if they had claimed the Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income filers. Long announced he will be nominated to be the US Ambassador to Iceland, making him the sixth IRS commissioner to leave or be removed from the agency this year. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will run the agency in an acting capacity.

The IRS begins sharing more sensitive data on taxpayers. Under the agreement with DHS, IRS had promised to share information on taxpayers under active criminal investigation, but DHS then requested information on 1.23 million individuals. The IRS was only able to return information on less than 5% of this request, angering the Trump White House and reportedly leading to Long’s dismissal.

Expressing concerns that the lax security of DOGE’s cloud could lead to the leak of every American’s social security number (and the requirement ro reissue new ones), the Chief Data Officer of the Social Security Administration contacts Edward Coristine and John Solly to request information about the security of DOGE’s cloud. He is never granted a reply and learns that the SSA Office of General Counsel (headed by DOGE member Mark Steffensen) has advised employees not to respond to his inquiries.

Brad Smith starts at State.

In an analysis of DOGE’s continued exaggeration about its savings, Politico notes that updates to the site’s Wall of Receipts have become more infrequent. There were barely any updates in June, followed by a four-week gap in July and another 17 days for a few items in August. This suggests that the cost-cutting mission (or at least, bragging about it) has slowed or faltered within DOGE.

Citing a Supreme Court shadow docket ruling as precedent, a DC Appeals Court overturned a stay from February and ordered that DOGE should be allowed to access sensitive data at the Treasury Department, OPM and Department of Education.

In a call hosted by the US CIO, DOGE team lead Scott Langmack shares info on an AI tool named SweetREX Deregulation AI Plan Builder developed by Christoper Sweet to review agency regulations for elimination. This is the same tool highlighted by DOGE in a presentation to the White House earlier in the month. Agency representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of State, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation are on the call. Steve Davis also was on the call despite having left DOGE and asked if the tool could be open-sourced.

GSA launches a new website usai.gov to promote new partnerships between the agency and three different AI companies. The goal is to make it easier for agencies to embed AI internally. The site features large bold fonts, big images and an email contact form, and it also is 4 pages in total. This is the project that Bee Elvy and Alison Childs were reportedly working on.

Despite announcing that he would be leaving the agency on August 1st, Tyler Hassen is still reportedly working at the Department of the Interior. It is unclear what his title is and where his work is focused, but he is still there.

In a letter to the Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee, the Acting Inspector General for the Social Security Administration reports she has no intention of investigating how DOGE added individuals to the Death Master File. She states that DOGE was directed to do this change by Leland Dudek. also reports that the changes were reverted in June 2025 under the order of Frank Bisignano.

EO 14338: Improving Our Nation Through Better Design

Joe Gebbia starts as Chief Design Officer at NDS.

President Trump signs EO 14338, which creates the new National Design Studio within the EOP and tasks it with centralizing control over design across the federal government. Joe Gebbia is subsequently named the new Chief Design Officer. Similar to DOGE’s structure, the NDS contains a temporary organization within that can be used for hiring Special Government Employees (SGEs) to work for the government on a volunteer basis.

To accompany the creation of the National Design Studio, the organization launches the site ndstudio.gov to promote the group. The site features a single page of chunky bold text as well as an email signup form and a place to submit resumes.

The National Design Studio also launches americabydesign.gov to promote the America by Design initiative mentioned in EO 14338. This includes the oft-repeated quote from Joe Gebbia that government websites should offer an “Apple Store”-like experience. This site is a single page of large bold text, with a header video of a waving American flag. It also includes an email sign-up form.

Analysis by economists at Yale reveals that DOGE’s widespread lease cancellations have had an effect on the normally stable $12 billion in commercial mortgage-backed securities. In the DC area alone, researchers estimate losses of $575 million to the commercial real-estate sector over the next ten years.

More than 190 current and former FEMA employees sign their name to a public letter on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, criticizing agency leadership for destroying the capabilities of the agency and violating the requirements of the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006. While most were anonymous, 35 employees gave their real names and were immediately placed on administrative leave under investigation. Due to DOGE and Kristi Noem’s clamp-down on spending, the agency has more than $700 million in disaster funding that is still to be approved. In addition, a third of the agency’s staff had departed by May, reducing the capacity and institutional wisdom of the agency to respond to disasters.

Kaitlyn Koller starts as Director of Operations at NDS.

Kaitlyn Koller leaves role as Senior Advisor at DOGE

Ruling in Burleigh v. FCC, Judge Amy Berman Jackson denies a preliminary injunction that would compel the FCC to make all documents about DOGE activities available for FOIA by October 10th. Nevertheless, the judge ordered DOGE to provide more details on its activities at the agency, expressing concern at the skimpy 35 pages of documentation that the agency had provided so far.

The Chief Information Officer for NIH departs her role after only eight months on the job. She was the first CIO at NIH after a vacancy of two years and it’s unclear if anybody at NIH will serve as Acting CIO.

The Chief Data Officer of the Social Security Administration, Charles Borges, submits a public whistleblower complaint alleging that DOGE cut corners and skirted mandatory IT oversight in order to copy sensitive NUMIDENT data of the social security numbers of all Americans into a private cloud environment that only they controlled.

As a direct result of DOGE-driven cuts, the Department of Energy announces that it has to delay a regular report tracking shipments of uranium fuel and completely suspend a report on photovoltaic panels. The department that tracks such reports lost more than 100 people out of its 350-person workforce this year. These reports are not as critical as other Energy reports, but the damage to data collection and reporting is making energy traders nervous.

Edward Coristine and Zach Terrell start as Director of Engineering at NDS.

Russell Vought starts as Acting Director at USAID.

Marco Rubio leaves role as Acting Administrator at USAID

Reporting that retaliation and abuse have made it impossible for him to do his job, whistleblower Charles Borges resigns from his position at the Social Security Administration. Retaliation against whistleblowers is a prohibited personnel practice for federal staff, but it can be difficult to prove and enforce.

Marco Rubio announces on TruthSocial that Russell Vought has been named as the new Acting Administrator of USAID to “oversee the closeout” of the agency after much of its staff was fired, certain responsibilities were absorbed into the State Department and grants were slashed

Ashley Boizelle starts as Senior Counsel to the President at EOP.

Scott Langmack starts as Executive Director, Deregulation AI at OMB.

Clark Minor starts as Acting Chief AI Officer at HHS.

David Taggart starts as Acting General Counsel at NRC.

Andrew Vilcsak starts as Senior Technologist at GSA.

Joshua Carter promoted to Associate Administrator at SBA

Michael Cole leaves role as Senior Team Leader on Government Efficiency at USDA (exits govt. service)

Miles Collins leaves role as Policy Advisor at DOL (exits govt. service)

Adam Ramada ends detailed position at Ed. (exits govt. service)

Alexander Simonpour leaves role at GSA (exits govt. service)

Brian Stube leaves role as Senior Advisor to the Secretary at DOT (exits govt. service)

Katrine Trampe leaves role at DOI (exits govt. service)

Bridget Youngs ends detailed position at DOL (exits govt. service)

Bridget Youngs leaves role as Contract Specialist at GSA (exits govt. service)