Elimination of 18F could slow Trump admin’s digital services
Following the sudden termination of 18F, a series of government digital services projects now face an uncertain future, according to three former employees of the General Services Administration program who spoke to FedScoop.
The elimination of 18F, which aimed to help federal agencies build and acquire better software, raises serious questions about the extent to which the Trump administration is actually committed to technology modernization. 18F was based within the GSA’s Technology Transformation Services, which is now led by Thomas Shedd, a former Tesla engineer.
Without the program, a series of projects, including efforts related to passport processing and a voting assistance program, are now in limbo. If an agency had the technical ability to build one of the tools, they wouldn’t have reached out to 18F for help, one former member of 18F told FedScoop.
18F’s major projects included work on Direct File, the Internal Revenue Service’s free electronic filing service, which launched last tax season. That effort, warned one former employee, now risks being slowed down or potentially halted. Republicans have intensely targeted the program and called for its eradication, as FedScoop has previously reported. (Direct File is available for use this tax season).
18F staffers had also been assisting the State Department in modernizing the passport renewal process, a project that had been slow going before the GSA team began to help, a former employee said. The group was also working to improve the website for the National Weather Service and upgrading an API used to access weather information. Another project involved improving a platform used to help people abroad — including members of the military — with voting.
Assisting federal agencies with software acquisitions was also a major component of 18F’s mission. The organization often separated projects into “build” and “buy.” 18F might assist a partner agency’s contracting officers and provide technical resources that could help them hold vendors accountable and pursue better software contracts.
The website for the former organization is now offline, though the 18F GitHub repository is still publicly accessible.
Many former members of 18F are still processing the program’s sudden eradication. Notifications were sent to employees after midnight on Saturday morning, so some workers on the West Coast found out late Friday night, while others woke up to the news the next day. More than 90 people appear to have been impacted.
18F’s shuttering was somewhat unexpected, though there’d been growing concerns that the group could be targeted. The program had been complimented by Shedd, a former employee said, but Elon Musk had also tweeted that 18F had been “deleted” a few weeks earlier.
Some terminated employees have not received instructions on how to return their government devices. Others haven’t been able to log into their devices at all.
One former 18F member said the termination emails didn’t properly classify employees’ tenure groups. Access to email is still read only, former staffers said.
At least one probationary employee who had been terminated earlier received communications that the probationary termination had been rescinded — only then to be put on administration leave through the reduction-in-force.
“No other TTS programs were affected. GSA is committed to fully supporting impacted employees as they transition from federal service,” a spokesperson for the agency told FedScoop over the weekend. “GSA will continue to support the Administration’s drive to embrace best in class technologies to accelerate digital transformation and modernize IT infrastructure. This includes understanding what solutions are the most effective and necessary to meet the needs of our customer agencies and the American taxpayer.”
