President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress on March 4, 2025 (White House) US President Donald Trump highlighted an array of tech-related initiatives during Tuesday’s address to a joint session of Congress, including bipartisan congressional efforts to curb sexual deepfakes and Elon Musk’s dramatic attempts to trim the federal workforce. But some of […]
“10 Years of the U.S. Digital Service: Transforming Government for the Digital Age | OMB.” The White House, 13 Aug. 2024, https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/omb/briefing-room/2024/08/13/10-years-of-the-u-s-digital-service-transforming-government-for-the-digital-age/. “Agency Information Collection Activity: United States Digital Service (USDS), Office of Management and Budget Collection of Formative Research on Agency Service Delivery.” Federal Register, 1 Dec. 2021, https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/12/01/2021-26081/agency-information-collection-activity-united-states-digital-service-usds-office-of-management-and. “Alleged Spikes in Medical Conditions […]
On the last Friday of September 2023, Elon Musk dropped in about an hour late to a dinner party at the Silicon Valley mansion of the technology investor Chamath Palihapitiya. Mr. Musk’s visit was meant to be discreet. Still skittish about getting involved publicly in politics, he told the guests he had to be careful […]
Rachel Lau and J.J. Tolentino work with leading public interest foundations and nonprofits on technology policy issues at Freedman Consulting, LLC. Ben Lennett is the managing editor of Tech Policy Press. The end of February marked thirty-nine days of President Trump’s second term and included significant developments in US technology governance, highlighted by Elon Musk’s […]
Washington DC: DOGE is tasked with ‘maximising governmental efficiency and productivity’ I Credit: Ramaz Bluashvili (Pexels) Donald Trump has directed US government agencies to build ‘centralised tech systems’ to ‘record every payment’ made via grants and contracts. The presidential instruction was made through an executive order with a stated aim of ‘commenc[ing] a transformation in […]
Amy Gleason, a former health care investment executive, is serving as the acting administrator of the Department of Government Efficiency, the government-overhaul task force imposing dramatic changes across the federal bureaucracy under the direction of Elon Musk, a White House official said on Tuesday. For two weeks, the Trump administration had resisted answering inquiries about […]
A month after announcing the US withdrawal from the OECD global tax deal, President Trump issued a memorandum on 21 February 2025 providing for the imposition of tariffs on countries hindering ‘American companies’ global competitiveness’. This initiative specifically targets the US technology sector, which the White House claims is a victim of ‘overseas extortion and […]
The Trump administration is asking federal agencies to submit reductions in force and reorganization plans by March 13, setting the stage for more workforce terminations. A memo from the Office of Personnel Management sent Wednesday tells agency heads that their plans to reduce the workforce and reorganize departments are required to comply with the executive […]
The acting administrator of the Department of Government Efficiency is a low-profile executive who has expertise in health care technology and worked in the first Trump administration.The White House on Tuesday afternoon identified Amy Gleason as the acting leader of DOGE, which has been pushing agencies to fire employees, cancel contracts and make other budget […]
Elon Musk speaks as President Donald Trump holds a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2025. AP/Pool hide caption toggle caption AP/Pool President Trump came into office promising big changes to the way government functions. Already, a month into the second Trump administration, those changes are happening: some 75,000 federal […]
