When Barack Obama created the United States Digital Service in 2014, it was meant to disrupt the arcane tech processes that had led to catastrophes like the original HealthCare.gov rollout. A team of young, private sector workers had been able to come in and fix the site — why couldn’t they be deployed throughout the government to modernize an arcane tech infrastructure?
The launch of USDS was met with deep skepticism from longtime civil servants, but ultimately it helped start and upgrade numerous government websites. Now, more than a decade later, Elon Musk has taken over the agency and brought in his own young tech workers he’s deploying in agencies to “improve the quality and efficiency” of government IT systems.
But USDS has morphed into the “United States DOGE Service,” and Musk is using the agency’s uniquely nimble design to push the limits of U.S. privacy law, Congress’ power of the purse and the Constitution itself.