Jun 2026

The Inspector General for the Treasury concludes a 10-month investigation that found no evidence of the payments fraud that was alleged by Elon Musk. Instead, it seems like Musk misinterpreted some incorrect TINs as direct proof of fraud, despite no futher evidence. This accusation of fraud was also the impetus for DOGE’s investigations into SSA which produced their own false accusations.

Speaking at a conference, the Chief Technology Officer for the Department of Defense reports that roughly 1.5 million personnel (or a little less than half) within the agency are using commercial AI tools. The example usage given was for generating mandatory reports to Congress, but it’s unclear how widespread this is and how much work goes into checking the AI’s work.

After DOGE and the early retirement program eliminated more than 3000 people last year, the FDA is scrambling to hire 2200 people, in some cases hiring back people to roles they were eliminated from. Progress is still relatively slow-going, with only a few hundred having completed the background check and onboarding process.

The advocacy group Frequency Forward filed a motion accusing the FCC of failing to comply with court orders to respond to FOIA request and alleging that the FCC chairman has been using Signal to avoid government record-keeping requirements.

Despite uncertainties caused by DOGE’s massive staffing cuts, the Internal Revenue Service performed better than what people feared would happen in the filing period. However, filers who needed additional assistance faced waits of weeks or months to get their issues resolved.

Edward Coristine and Tai Groot sit down for an interview with TBPN to discuss their launch of a new machine-learning model named Rampart that runs in the user’s browser (it’s a 14.7MB download) and scans to prevent the accidental entry of PII in forms. They describe this project as a “side-quest” and also note that there are approximately 30 people in the NDS and brag about being the “only place in the government where people work 7 days a week.” The interview does not touch on the website redesign work that has been promised by NDS.

During a hearing before the House Appropriations financial services subcommittee, Russell Vought states there are no plans to do any sort of closing report that will measure DOGE’s impact on spending and federal operations.

Joe Schlaud starts as Designer at NDS.

Dan Sweeney promoted to Deputy General Counsel for Economic, Statistical and Regulatory Affairs at Commerce