Jan 2026

The US DOGE Service posts that it is looking for new people to fill two-year terms as part of the regular digital service organization (not the temporary one). The posting states that approximately 70 people work for USDS now, a steep reduction from the 230 people who were in USDS in 2024.

The board of directors votes to formally dissolve the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, ending its 58 year history of providing funding for PBS, NPR and local TV and radio stations. This was the inevitable outcome after Congress codified the elimination of funding for the agency.

A whistleblower files a complaint alleging that a member of DOGE who left SSA in October to work for a private contractor had illegally retained their agency laptop and highly-sensitive data. The complaint alleges the unnnamed person had unredacted copies of the NUMIDENT database and the Master Death Files and that they boasted of “God-level” access to SSA data. The DOGE member reportedly wanted assistance to move data from a thumb drive to their personal equipment so they could scrub the data of personal identifiers and use for a company project. When informed by agency personnel that this would be highly illegal, the person allegedly said they would be able to receive a full presidential pardon if they did anything wrong. Although unnamed in the original reporting, he is revealed to be John Solly.

A memo from the Secretary of the Department of Energy orders the rollback of rules for nuclear safety that had been in place since the 1950s. The rule that required radiation leaks to be “as low as reasonably achievable” was seen as too costly for nuclear power startups and a blocker to the administration’s goal of getting 3 new advanced reactors started by July 4, 2026.

The National Design Studio launches realfood.gov with HHS. Evoking more of a nostalgic and warm tone rather than the technocratic darkness of some prior sites, it is still a one-page site with large bold text, expandable accordions but now also with some scrolling animation.

After GSA officials raised concerns that the xAI Grok model was a safety risk because it was too syncophantic and susceptible to manipulation, Josh Gruenbaum defends the inclusion of the company’s models into the government’s USAi site. Susie Wiles is satisfied by his explanation, but usage of the model by government agencies has been low, except in some cases where security testers have needed to simulate a bad actor.

Owen West is named as the new head of the Defense Innovation Unit at the Department of Defense. He has been the head of the DOGE team at the Pentagon and is expected to take over his new position in February or March.

All employees that were laid off from the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health as part of the massive HHS reduction in force have reportedly received notices that their RIF notices are revoked and remain employed. The RIF is being contested in court, but it’s unclear what led to this specific reversal.

In a filing in AFL-CIO v. SSA, the government amended several declarations that had been made in Leland Dudek’s testimony on March 24, 2025. For starters, although DOGE access was revoked on that day, a member of DOGE was running queries against PII in the NUMIDENT database up to the moment. Also, the DOGE team at SSA sent encrypted sensitive SSA data to DOGE and the Department of Labor. A member of the DOGE team also signed an agreement to share information with an outside advocacy group without clearing it through proper legal channels.

Todd Newnam promoted to Chief Financial Officer at IRS

Acting IRS CEO Frank Bisignano announces a major shake-up for leadership at the IRS, which had already been struggling with vacancies after DOGE-driven reductions last year. Bisignano has announced he will be co-leading tax compliance at the agency. He also promoted DOGE team lead Tom Newnam to the role of Chief Financial Officer, giving him oversight over procurement, facilities and privacy at the agency.

Speaking in a podcast interview, Joe Gebbia reports that the National Design Studio is working to revise every government website, adding that “look like they’re from the mid-90s.” He also states that the NDS is going to deliver a refresh of some existing websites by July 4, 2026 and that the team will eventually consist of approximately 15 engineers and 15 designers and is currently employing brilliant veterans of Silicon Valley.

Nate Cavanaugh testifies in a deposition related to American Council of Learned Societies v. NEH

The IRS reports that it has discovered a severe error in the validation code for its data-sharing of taxpayer information with ICE. The system is only supposed to share information if it matches a valid prior address provided for the individual provided by ICE. Instead, the system was just checking if the fields for address and zip code were just not blank, and in some cases ICE was requesting info with addresses that were random information or the locations of jails and detention centers. After reviewing the requests, IRS engineers confirm this affected approximately 5% of the 47,289 records shared with the IRS to ICE.

The judge in Center for Taxpayer Right v. IRS allows for a stay in the preliminary injunction against the IRS. Under the terms of this stay, the IRS must notify all parties within 3 days of it it plans to create a new API for retrieving taxpayer info and to notify the court formally if it receives any other requests from DHS. It also allows for either party to drop the stay.

Amanda Scales starts at OPM.

Justin Fox testifies in a deposition related to American Council of Learned Societies v. NEH. He states he has no access to NEH or GSA equipment and that all of the communications related to mass terminations at NEH were done on his GSA laptop. He also admits to communicating with DOGE staffers before and after hiring on Signal. He states that Anythony Armstrong specifically used Signal to send him messages related to DOGE leadership priorities, and that Anthony Armstrong was very focused about using Signal.

Speaking at the ACT-IAC Summit, Federal CIO Greg Barbaccia touted the work of the National Design Studio and reported that OMB is working closely with NDS to “coalesce” the administration’s website design, comparing it to how certain hotel brands will all look and smell the same. He reports there are internal sandboxes running for new designs and a redesigned site for CIO.gov will soon illustrate the new look. The NDS is also reportedly leaning heavily into using AI for its work. In addition, 35,000 people have applied to the administration’s Tech Force initiative and they are reviewing 6,000 applicants.

Braden Steffaniak starts as Software Engineer at NDS.

Ankur Bansal promoted to Managing Director, AI Infrastructure at DOE

Ashley Boizelle leaves role as Senior Counsel to the President at EOP (exits govt. service)

Aram Moghaddassi leaves role as Chief Information Officer (Technology and Customer Products) at SSA (exits govt. service)

Ethan Shaotran leaves role at GSA (exits govt. service)

Alexander Tullman ends detailed position as Senior Advisor at HHS