A short guide to the United States Digital Service, currently under destruction by the Trump regime
NOTE BENE: Many of the links in this post go to archived web pages. I have done this in case the current live pages are taken down.
Today, Engineering Director of the United States Digital Service (USDS) resigned in protest over the USDS's takeover by Trump's "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOG-E). Though DOG-E is an unlawfully and unconstitutionally constituted entity, last week DOG-E operatives fired one third of the USDS team. This prompted the resigner, Anne Marshall, to write on LinkedIn: "These cuts were shortsighted ill-informed, and indiscriminate. The government and the American people will be worse off from the loss of these people." Marshall's full statement is worth reading. She is, however, an engineer, not a lawyer or historian. Her statement does not explain the political and legal significance of the destruction of USDS by DOG-E. While I'm not an expert on USDS and its history, I know enough to provide some background to help understand what's going here.
Remember the difficulty the federal government had launching HealthCare.gov, the website that hosted the health care insurance exchange established by the Affordable Care Act? To rescue that website, the White House hired a group of technology experts, who came into government on an emergency basis. After their success, one of them, Mikey Dickerson was asked by the Obama administration to "institutionaliz[e] the approach that saved the health care site and applying it to the work of the government even before disaster strikes." In 2014, the Obama White House launched the United States Digital Service, often characterized as a start-up consulting firm within the federal government. USDS began as a pilot program, funded by discretionary funds. Starting in 2016, Congress appropriated money it directed toward USDS so that it could, under Congress's auspices and oversight, collaborate with government agencies to improve their information technology services. Subsequently, Congress allocated funds to USDS in its appropriations bills for fiscal years 2017-2025. As is typical, the USDS submitted regular reports on its work to Congress and released similar information straight to the public. The basic mission of USDS was to improve delivery of federal government services to the public. This 2016 letter from Dickerson to Congress gives a good sense of the sort of thing USDS has done.
The three key facts to keep in mind: (i) the Obama administration founded USDS; (ii) USDS was an outgrowth of the ultimately successful operationalization of the Affordable Care Act; and (iii) as USDS became an established, major entity, Congress, in accordance with its Constitutionally-specified spending power, assumed and exercised oversight. Facts (i) and (ii) reveal the political significance of Trump and Musk's effort to infiltrate USDS and pervert its mission. Obama's presidency represents everything Republican Fascists hate; hollowing out one of Obama's signature successes gives them particular satisfaction, I'm sure. Fact (iii) explains the unlawfulness and unconstitutionality of what Trump and Musk are doing. To the extent that DOG-E has so far usurped USDS it is wrongfully using government resources that Congress appropriated for ongoing improvement of government services; Congress decidedly did not appropriate money for USDS to destroy government agencies that provide services. If Trump wanted to set up broad, major executive branch operation to achieve that, he would have to ask Congress to authorize and fund it. What the Constitution flat out forbids is Trump using federal money for a purpose Congress never authorized.