{"id":602,"date":"2025-01-21T16:45:54","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T20:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/?p=602"},"modified":"2025-01-21T16:45:55","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T20:45:55","slug":"turns-out-that-doge-already-existed-just-with-a-different-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/2025\/01\/21\/turns-out-that-doge-already-existed-just-with-a-different-name\/","title":{"rendered":"Turns Out That DOGE Already Existed \u2013 Just With a Different Name"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At the federal level, stakeholders in the animal space often encounter regulators such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service or the Department of Interior\u2019s Fish & Wildlife Service.\u00a0 Not uncommonly, federal regulation is heavy-handed.\u00a0 Thus, the regulated have been keenly interested in the much discussed Department of Government Efficiency or \u201cDOGE\u201d that President Trump touted during the presidential campaign.\u00a0 As originally described<\/a>, DOGE \u2013 an advisory body to be headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy \u2013 would cut regulations and headcounts within the federal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly enough, however, when it came time to actually creating DOGE, President Trump\u2019s January 20, 2025 Executive Order <\/a>simply renamed and reorganized the duties of an existing federal agency \u2013 the United States Digital Service (\u201cUSDS\u201d).\u00a0 USDS has been around for ten years.\u00a0 It was created by President Obama in 2014. \u00a0The USDS website <\/a>describes the agency\u2019s mission as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

USDS brings together interdisciplinary teams of top technologists \u2013 including engineers, data scientists, designers, user researchers, product managers, and procurement experts \u2013 who collaborate closely with agency experts to tackle important problems. \u00a0This collaborative approach prioritizes human-centered engineering and design, focusing on iterative improvements to create user-friendly, reliable, and seamless digital services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

USDS states that it puts together teams of individuals with the relevant expertise who, \u201cwith tours of service lasting no more than four years . . . bring[] fresh perspectives on technology and delivery to the government.\u201d  Among USDS\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Trump\u2019s January 20, 2025 Executive Order (EO) \u201cestablishes the Department of Government Efficiency to implement the President\u2019s DOGE agenda by modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.\u201d  The EO renames USDS as the United States DOGE Service.  The EO requires each federal agency head to establish a \u201cDOGE Team\u201d within their respective agencies which will advise the agency head on \u201cimplementing the President\u2019s DOGE Agenda.\u201d  According to section 4(a) of the EO,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019 information technology capabilities to maximize efficiency.\u00a0 Whether the United States DOGE Service expands its role beyond technological improvement remains to be seen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As reported<\/a> by several media outlets, within 15 minutes of President Trump\u2019s 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.\u00a0 Whether those litigants revise their claims in light of the actual language of the EO is another thing that remains to be seen.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the federal level, stakeholders in the animal space often encounter regulators such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service or the Department of Interior\u2019s Fish & Wildlife Service.\u00a0 Not uncommonly, federal regulation is heavy-handed.\u00a0 Thus, the regulated have been keenly interested in the much discussed Department of Government Efficiency … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Turns Out That DOGE Already Existed \u2013 Just With a Different Name”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":317,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1048,1044,1043,1049,1045,12,5,1046,1047,1050],"ppma_author":[697],"class_list":["post-602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-animal-plant-health-inspection-service","tag-department-of-government-efficiency","tag-doge","tag-elon-musk","tag-federal-advisory-committee-act","tag-fish-wildlife-service","tag-john-simpson","tag-us-department-of-agriculture","tag-us-department-of-interior","tag-vivek-ramaswamy"],"authors":[{"term_id":697,"user_id":317,"is_guest":0,"slug":"jmsimpson","display_name":"John M. Simpson","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2018\/06\/simpsonjohn-125x150.jpg","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}