Apr 2026

GSA has announced it is hiring approximately 400 positions in the Public Building Service division that handled facilities acquisition and maintenance. The division had been hit doubly hard by DOGE’s efforts to remove personnel as well as cancel government leases, losing hundreds of employees in March 2025.

Edward Coristine appeared on the podcast of conservative influencer Nick Shirley to discuss efforts from DOGE to search for fraud. During the podcast, they discussed the new Medicaid dataset released by DOGE. On the podcast, Coristine alleges that a lot of federal money is being stolen and siphoned out of the country by immigrants as well as disproven theories that a lot of dead people are receiving social security benefits and are registered to vote. Coristine also discussed the NDS, and revealed that the chief creative office is Nate Brown.

Speaking at an AI conference, Carl Coe states that the Department of Energy will need to request significantly more funding to deliver on its goals for the Genesis Mission AI project.

Working with the Freedom 250 task force established by the Trump Administratration, the National Design Studio launches a new site freedom250.org to promote the Freedom 250 project. This includes a history section looking at the founders that created by a conservative Christian college, a highly-constrained AI chat assistant and a calendar of events that includes a Christian revivalist prayer tent, info about “Freedom Trucks” that will visit locations across the US and several sporting events including the Patriot Games where two teens are selected from each state to compete in sporting events. It also includes a list of corporate sponsors for the commission, most of whom are also selling products and services to the federal government, as well as multiple conservative religious organizations as partners.

In response to “alarming” developments about DOGE’s handling of sensitive data and collaboration with an outsider advocacy group to share voter data, a judge lifted a pause on a case and granted the plaintiffs’ request for discovery. This could force SSA and DOGE to hand over documents, emails and even provide testimony under oath about their activities.

Speaking at a conference about AI, Chase Ausley, a USDS director stationed who is serving as a senior advisor to CMS reports that USDS is currently 90 people with the goal of being 100 staffers soon. This is a dramatic improvement over the approximately 70 staffers listed in January, but still far below the 230 employees working for USDS in late 2024.

Josh Gruenbaum detailed from GSA to EOP

Josh Gruenbaum demoted to Senior Advisor at GSA

Abdulwahab Omira starts as Design Engineer at NDS.

GSA announced plans to sell the headquarters of OPM and immediate plans where GSA will temporarily relocate into OPM’s building while renovations at GSA HQ proceed and then OPM will be permanently relocated to the GSA building. The consolidation is approved by both the GSA administrator and OPM head Scott Kupor. Both agencies have increasing control over hiring and IT operations for the Executive Branch and were both sites of DOGE’s away teams of wreckers. The move and sale would happen in December 2028.

USAID (currently under the leadership of Russell Vought) files a report to Congree that it currently has $19 billion in unallocated funds that it intends to use for closing out the agency. This amount is almost half of what the State Department has budgeted for foreign assistance, even after those operations were consolidated into a single agency.

Speaking at a defense industry conference, Rachel Riley outlined a new path for the Office of Naval Research that is focused less on scientific research and more on applied research in areas where private industry is relatively undeveloped. This includes an effort into “explainable AI,” in an attempt to reduce the prevalence of incorrect answers in current AI projects.

Democrats on the House Armed Services committee sharply questioned Pentagon cybersecurity staff about reports that DOGE cuts had severely diminished the cyberdefense capacity at the Department of Defense. Government officials denied that there were any issues.

Testifying at the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick reported that the US had approved only 1 “gold card” visa application so far. He also claimed there were hundreds more applicants in the queue for the program, which requires a $1 million fee and $15,000 in processing fees.

Greg Hogan detailed from NDS to GSA

The Government Accountability Office releases a report detailing its investigation into DOGE’s system access at the Treasury Department. It found that the agency did not properly follow all of its requirements for security training and controls before granting access. It only covers DOGE activities by Tom Krause and Marko Elez at the agency and does not investigate later staff assigned to the agency.

The Government Accountability Office releases a report of an investigation in DOGE activities at the agency. It found that GSA detailed two staffers to NLRB and they did not access any agency IT systems there. It does also mention that a whistleblower reported illegal access in March 2025, but that is being investigated by the agency Inspector General

John Cafazza, James DeBrock, and Brijan Powell start at NDS.

Jack Stein leaves role as Senior Advisor at SBA (exits govt. service)

Jack Stein leaves role as Senior Advisor at DOD (exits govt. service)

Alexander Tullman leaves role as Senior Advisor at GSA (exits govt. service)