President Trump kicked of his second term with an executive order issued late Monday that makes his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) – at least temporarily – an agency of the executive branch and rebrands the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) as the U.S. DOGE Service on order to help DOGE focus on modernizing Federal technology to improve efficiency and productivity.
USDS – originally part of the Office of Management and Budget – was created in August 2014 by former President Obama to improve and simplify the digital experience for the public when interacting with the government.
The new U.S. DOGE Service is expected to “commence a Software Modernization Initiative to improve the quality and efficiency of government-wide software, network infrastructure, and information technology (IT) systems,” the White House order says.
The EO also mandates that Federal agencies create DOGE teams within 30 days to implement the DOGE agenda.
The DOGE agenda, the order says, involves “modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.”
Each agency DOGE team will consist of at least four members, including a team lead, engineer, HR specialist, and attorney. The order also directs “agency heads to promote inter-operability between agency networks and systems, ensure data integrity, and facilitate responsible data collection and synchronization.”
Within the new version of USDS, the order creates a temporary organization “dedicated to advancing the President’s 18-month DOGE agenda.” The U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization will cease to exist on July 4, 2026.
During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump tapped businessmen Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk to lead the DOGE effort, which was initially proposed as an advisory group.
Ramaswamy will no longer be involved in DOGE effort, announcing on X that he is stepping back to focus on his reported plans to run in Ohio for a U.S. Senate seat.
However, as the president moves forward with making DOGE a reality, the effort is already facing several lawsuits.
Those include one from the American Federation of Government Employees, along with the nonprofits Public Citizen and State Democracy Defenders Fund, which was filed minutes after Trump was sworn into office for a second term.
The lawsuit claims that DOGE violates the Federal Advisory Committee Act, citing concerns that its members lack a “fair balance of viewpoints, meetings are held in secret and without public notice, and records and work product are not available to the public.”
