Elon Musk’s DOGE shuts down the GSA’s technology unit – News

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has been at it again, instructing the General Services Administration to eliminate its technology consulting unit, known as 18F.

News of the decision first emerged on Saturday, but it remains unclear how many workers have been affected. According to Nextgov/FCW, the 18F office employed a team of about 90 to 100 technology researchers, website designers and product managers.

18F was responsible for creating the Internal Revenue Service’s free tax-filing service and designing and updating various government agency websites, CBS News reported.

The decision to eliminate 18F was announced by the GSA’s deputy administrator Thomas Shedd via an email to affected staffers. In the email, Shedd wrote that the team had been identified by DOGE as “non-critical,” adding that the cuts had been made “in alignment with the President’s Workforce Optimization EO and the recent memo from GSA per the Trump Administration requiring cutting ‘non-essential consulting’ functions.”

Shedd added that the decision was made with “explicit direction” from top levels of leadership within President Donald Trump’s administration, and said “we anticipate more change in the future.”

The 18F team was founded in 2014, the same year as the U.S. Digital Service that has since morphed into Musk’s DOGE organization through Trump’s Executive Order 14158. Its official website has already been taken offline.

Musk has stated that he aims to fix the government’s “antiquated technology,” and the same language featured prominently in the executive order creating the DOGE team. The billionaire technology entrepreneur has been tasked by Trump with reducing federal spending, and has responded by laying off thousands of federal government workers.

In a post on his social media platform X, Musk wrote that 18F had been “deleted” several weeks ago, and shared another post that labeled the team a “far left government computer office.”

The GSA is a much older organization that was first founded in 1949. It has grown to around 12,000 employees and oversees a wide range of support services for other government agencies, including managing office space and real estate, acquiring supplies and overseeing their digital technology environments.

In addition, the GSA also has the responsibility to assist with presidential transitions. However, after Trump won the last election in November, his transition team refused to sign a memorandum of understanding with the GSA, as had been done by prior administrations, including Trump’s first in 2016. The agreement authorizes the GSA to provide office space, secure email addresses and funding for transition staff.

The decision to cut 18F has its critics, with one of the most notable being the billionaire investor Mark Cuban, who previously campaigned for former Vice President Kamala Harris last year and has been critical of Trump. In a social media post, Cuban called for 18F’s former staffers to group together and “start a consulting company” in response to their dismissal.

“It’s just a matter of time before DOGE needs you to fix the mess they inevitably create,” Cuban said. “They will have to hire your company as a contractor to fix it. But on your terms. I’m happy to invest and/or help.”

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