At the federal level, stakeholders in the animal space often encounter regulators such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service or the Department of Interior’s Fish & Wildlife Service. Not uncommonly, federal regulation is heavy-handed. Thus, the regulated have been keenly interested in the much discussed Department of Government Efficiency or “DOGE” that President Trump touted during the presidential campaign. As originally described, DOGE – an advisory body to be headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy – would cut regulations and headcounts within the federal government.
Interestingly enough, however, when it came time to actually creating DOGE, President Trump’s January 20, 2025 Executive Order simply renamed and reorganized the duties of an existing federal agency – the United States Digital Service (“USDS”). USDS has been around for ten years. It was created by President Obama in 2014. The USDS website describes the agency’s mission as follows:
USDS brings together interdisciplinary teams of top technologists – including engineers, data scientists, designers, user researchers, product managers, and procurement experts – who collaborate closely with agency experts to tackle important problems. This collaborative approach prioritizes human-centered engineering and design, focusing on iterative improvements to create user-friendly, reliable, and seamless digital services.
USDS states that it puts together teams of individuals with the relevant expertise who, “with tours of service lasting no more than four years . . . bring[] fresh perspectives on technology and delivery to the government.” Among USDS’s listed achievements are improved user and customer digital experiences for the Veterans Administration, Social Security Administration, Internal Revenue Service and the Centers for Disease Control.
President Trump’s January 20, 2025 Executive Order (EO) “establishes the Department of Government Efficiency to implement the President’s DOGE agenda by modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” The EO renames USDS as the United States DOGE Service. The EO requires each federal agency head to establish a “DOGE Team” within their respective agencies which will advise the agency head on “implementing the President’s DOGE Agenda.” According to section 4(a) of the EO,
The USDS Administrator shall commence a Software Modernization Initiative to improve the quality and efficiency of government-wide software, network infrastructure, and information technology (IT) systems. Among other things, the USDS Administrator shall work with Agency Heads to promote inter-operability between agency networks and systems, ensure data integrity, and facilitate responsible data collection and synchronization.
So, what was described originally as an initiative that would basically slash and burn through the federal bureaucratic state, appears, at least in its original formulation, to be largely a plan to overall federal agencies’ information technology capabilities to maximize efficiency. Whether the United States DOGE Service expands its role beyond technological improvement remains to be seen.
As reported by several media outlets, within 15 minutes of President Trump’s oath of office and before the EO was even signed, several groups filed suit claiming that DOGE is an unlawful advisory committee under the Federal Advisory Committee Act. Whether those litigants revise their claims in light of the actual language of the EO is another thing that remains to be seen.