Oct 2025

In an email sent to members of the National Council on the Humanities, the White House fires all the people on this board which advises the National Endowment for the Humanities

In a memo released by OMB detailing operations during the government shutdown, OMB reveals that there are 45 people in the DOGE office who will continue to work during the shutdown because it is not funded through a normal appropriations process.

Frank Bisignano starts as Chief Executive Officer at IRS.

Working with the White House and HHS, the National Design Studio launches the TrumpRX to promote a forthcoming initiative from the White House to cap certain drug prices for private payers. This is the fourth website to bear the National Design Studio credit, and like the others it is a single-page site with expandable accordion elements of text and an email signup form.

Another round of terminations results in the CDC having lost a quarter of its staff – around 3000 people – since the beginning of the Trump administration. The latest firings targeted the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, the National Center for Health Statistics as well as other supporting functions within the agency like human resources, building security and the library.

EO 14356: Ensuring Continued Accountability in Federal Hiring

The Trump Administration announces plans for a digital version of the existing federal voter registration form that would be created by the National Design Studio. The system would run voter identity and citizenship checks against SAVE and other DHS systems before allowing voters to register. Notes from the call with National Association of State Election Directors reported that election officials from both parties expressed concern about this plan not complying with state laws. They also reported “the developers do not seem to want to spend the time to understand election official concerns.”

Seeking to further bolster support for its proposed new voter registration tool that would be integrated with DHS databases, the Election Assistance Commission hosts a call with the National Association of Secretaries of State. Akash Bobba speaks on the call as a developer and reports it will be created by the National Design Studio and integrate with the revamped SAVE database from DHS. When asked for details about data retention and security, Bobba could only state that “clear data retention policies” would be provided to states in advance.

The Trump Administration registers the domain techforce.gov and later launches a password-protected site with branding for the National Design Studio on it.

Sam Beyda contacts the Peaceable Primate Sanctuary to ask how many of the approximately 200 macaques it can adopt immediately from the CDC’s primate research operations and whether it would be able to adopt all of them by the end of the year.

The National Design Studio launches a new website safedc.gov for the admnistration’s new DC task force. It features a single page of large bold text on a black background with a large (possibly AI-generated) picture of Trump on patrol with agents, links to job listings on USA Jobs and an email sign-up form. Weirdly, the NDS header also includes a clock.

Rachel Riley starts as Chief of Naval Research at DOD.

Rachel Riley leaves role as Senior Advisor at HHS

Rachel Riley leaves role at CMS

Rachel Riley leaves role at NIH

The DOGE team at the SEC has reportedly wrapped up its work at the agency and will be exiting from its involvement at the regulator. Although multiple people have been part of DOGE’s efforts, only Eliezer Mishory has been spotted there in recent months

Jonathan Mendelson ends detailed position as Senior Advisor at SEC

Eliezer Mishory leaves role as Senior Advisor at SEC

The DOGE team at the Pentagon is reported to be leading efforts to change how the military procures and uses drones and is expected to submit a report to leadership in the coming weeks. One of their goals is reportedly to acquire 30,000 drones in the next few months before ramping up further. The team’s work is being led by Owen West, who also co-authored a drone memo in June.

Nate Brown, Greg Hogan, Michael Novia, Darshan Phillips, and Caelin Sutch start at NDS.

Nicholas Gallagher detailed from GSA to NRC

Sydney Volanski detailed from EOP to NRC

Seth Cohen promoted to Chief Counsel for Nuclear Policy at DOE

Charles Ezell leaves role as Senior Advisor at OPM (exits govt. service)

Cary Volpert leaves role at VA (exits govt. service)