Ahead of possible shutdown, Sen. John Curtis calls on Congress to innovate ‘broken’ budget process

The Senate faces a Friday night deadline to vote to fund the federal agencies — a scenario that’s become all too common in Washington with the regular looming threat of a government shutdown.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. That’s the belief of Utah Republican Sen. John Curtis, who said Thursday that the existing federal budget process is “broken,” antiquated and needs to be innovated.

“We put our budgeting laws into place in 1974,” Curtis said at the Workday-sponsored FedScoop Federal Forum. And since that time, Congress has passed a budget before the start of a fiscal year only four times, the senator pointed out. The last time was in 1996.

“This is a broken, broken process,” Curtis said.

Throwing additional bodies at the issue isn’t going to be what solves it, he said, referencing what he believes to be a losing strategy that the government takes when it encounters an issue.

“The way the government looks at this, if we would just put more people on it, if we would just work harder, we would get our job done,” Curtis said. “And I hear that every year we don’t get the budget done. Let’s work harder. Let’s stay here longer.”

But the senator stood firm that it’s not a people issue. “We have to change our paradigm,” he said, advocating for the addition of modern technology that can “make people so much better” at their jobs.

“Instead, someone needs to say, ‘We need to innovate here. This is not working.’” Curtis said. “You can double the number of senators and members of Congress. You can triple, quadruple them. And guess what? We’re not going to get it done because the system is broken. So instead, we need innovation. We need thoughtful people thinking: How do we do this differently? And that is not happening.”

GOP lawmakers brush back inquiries on DOGE access to Treasury, SSA systems

House Ways and Means Republicans struck down a pair of resolutions from their Democratic counterparts Wednesday that sought documents and information related to DOGE access to Treasury Department and Social Security Administration IT systems.

During a frequently contentious more than three-and-a-half hour markup, Democrats made the case that it was the committee’s duty to find out what sensitive information has been handled by DOGE representatives through their forays into Treasury and SSA networks.

The first resolution (H.Res.127) called on the Treasury secretary to provide House lawmakers with documentation showing access to the department’s payment systems and confidential tax return information by DOGE associates or Elon Musk. Previously, a federal judge temporarily blocked DOGE access to Treasury systems, calling its approach “chaotic and haphazard.”

The second resolution (H.Res.195) sought similar records for DOGE and Musk’s work within SSA, including their usage of IT networks, customer service metrics following President Donald Trump’s inauguration, and details on the closures of regional offices and reductions in force.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., said her constituents want “answers to very basic questions” regarding the exposure of their personal and financial information to “Musk’s unvetted and unqualified acolytes.” DelBene said she didn’t understand why House Ways and Means Republicans viewed Democrats’ request for information as “controversial.”

“We are a co-equal branch of government. We are in charge of oversight,” she said. “If you feel like there’s no concerns here, then why wouldn’t you want that information to be out in the public, for people to be able to ask questions and get a response?” 

Republicans bristled at Democrats’ claims that Musk and DOGE have been conducting their business in the shadows, pointing to the richest man in the world’s astoundingly active X account and his many media appearances.

Democrats were happy to discuss those appearances, calling attention repeatedly to Musk’s comment that Social Security is “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.” Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., blasted his Republican colleagues for not calling Musk before the committee to answer questions about privatizing Social Security. Two Ways and Means Democrats, Reps. Judy Chu of California and Gwen Moore of Wisconsin, sent a letter Feb. 6 asking Musk and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to testify before the committee.

But Republicans defended Musk’s supposed attempts to root out waste, fraud and abuse at SSA, while downplaying Democrats’ claims that the Trump administration planned to cut Social Security. Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, played a series of clips featuring President Donald Trump saying he wouldn’t touch Social Security. GOP members also criticized SSA customer service under the Biden administration, saying Trump and Musk were focused on improvements to what has long been a pain point for the formerly paper-based agency.

With multiple DOGE-instituted closures of SSA offices across the country, Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., pushed back hard on Republican claims of improved customer services being their “sole focus.”

“It’s interesting, because these cuts that have already [been] coming out of the administration are in the works, [including] those announcing the closure of 47 field offices and six regional offices,” he said. “How does that improve customer service?”

A story from The Washington Post that said SSA may drastically scale back phone services as part of DOGE’s push for cuts also drew Democrats’ ire, though the agency said in a press release Wednesday that reports of “plans to eliminate telephone services are inaccurate.”

Despite consistent messaging from the committee’s Democrats over Social Security cuts and Treasury security issues, both resolutions failed along party lines. One Republican said DOGE’s work must go on as part of Trump’s attempt to “slay the bureaucratic beast.”

“Those efforts are epic, breaking more than a century of acquiescence to spending and government,” said Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Ill. “The Trump team is courageously confronting the problem head on. We have an obligation and responsibility to bring down our debt and get this country back on track economically, and the DOGE commission and what President Trump and his team are doing is putting us on that path.”

Top Oversight Democrat warns of DOGE AI use in federal agencies

The top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is warning agencies against using artificial intelligence without adhering to privacy laws and software regulations, a request that comes amid reports that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is employing unauthorized AI tools in its work.

In letters sent to the heads of the departments of Commerce, Homeland Security, Education, Energy and others, Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., wrote that if agencies are failing to ensure that AI vendors have adequate approval through programs like FedRAMP, then they risk violating the law. Connolly specifically pointed to the Privacy Act of 1974, the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) and the E-Government Act of 2002. He also referenced the Advancing American AI Act, noting that agencies must keep a public inventory of current or planned uses. 

Connolly asked agencies to provide documentation that includes a list of sources of the data collected and used by Musk and DOGE in connection with AI, a description of all AI used since the second Trump administration began, a list of individuals who managed or accessed federal data in the process of feeding it through AI and more. Responses from agencies are expected by March 26. 

“If sensitive personnel files were uploaded to AI models, those files may now be accessible to third parties, including foreign adversaries,” Connolly wrote.

He continued: “Moreover, concerns that Elon Musk is using sensitive government data to ‘supercharge’ his proprietary AI model ‘Grok’ developed by xAI raise the possibility that Musk is leveraging access to sensitive government data for commercial advancement and private enrichment.”

Connolly cited a Washington Post story that said DOGE members have probed internal agency datasets — containing sensitive information — with AI. The House Oversight ranking member also highlighted an analysis from the Cyber-Intelligence Brief that found government IP addresses linked to an AI product called Inventry.ai that was designed for supply chain management. The analysis found “indications of a ‘massive firehose of data being sent to the AI company’s servers’ likely connected to the disclosure of ED data to the company by DOGE team members,” Connolly’s letter stated.

The lawmaker wrote that Inventry.ai has not yet been approved for federal cloud use through the FedRAMP process. 

“These actions demonstrate reckless AI misuse, blatant disregard for data privacy and a severe failure to maintain the cybersecurity of federal systems,” Connolly wrote.

GSA tees up internal demo days following cuts to tech staff 

The General Services Administration is launching an internal demonstration program for agency offices to show how they are using software and technology, including projects that use a new GSA artificial intelligence chatbot and workflow automation, according to an email obtained by FedScoop.

Stephen Ehikian, the agency’s acting administrator and a former Salesforce VP, said in an email to staff that they are encouraged — but not required — to sign up through a form to present a five-minute virtual demonstration for a project at any stage in the development cycle. Staff are asked not to prepare a formal presentation, but to show Ehikian and fellow employees the coding work, design files, infrastructure overviews and more in GSA’s integrated development environment. 

“I’m excited to personally emcee these optional meetings and give team members the chance to present their projects with the goal of promoting the cross-pollination of ideas,” Ehikian said in the email. “Leveraging software and technology is essential to reaffirming GSA’s founding mission — leading the way in making government more effective and efficient.” 

The presenting staff are asked to begin the demo by explaining what problem they are trying to solve and to “not obfuscate away from code or technical details” while refraining from sharing sensitive or classified data. A GSA spokesperson told FedScoop that the demos do not involve any members of the DOGE, and are not going to be used to inform the reductions in force (RIFs) that have been happening at the GSA. 

The GSA last week announced a 50% reduction to Technology Transformation Services. TTS Director Thomas Shedd, a Tesla alum, said last week during a town hall that the agency will only support work that is required by statute and policy, fits into the Trump administration’s definition of “critical” and is prioritized by leadership at GSA “in accordance with the priorities of the administration.”

A source familiar with the inner workings of the U.S. Digital Corps — which is managed by TTS — told FedScoop last month that DOGE employees asked them and others to show coding work in 15-minute touch bases before their termination that was part of the government-wide elimination of probationary employees. 

Ehikian said in his email that the team is interested in a “wide range of tech demos” including a “new AI chatbot” and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) bots. The agency’s Office of the Chief Financial Officer plans to present an RPA that it developed, as the OCFO leads the Federal RPA Community of Practice.

DOGE has been looking to find and champion positive achievements, according to The Washington Post, with Shedd reportedly telling staff during a meeting last week that he needs “wins to defend.”

When firing isn’t a fix: Why government needs more tech experts

Imagine for a moment that all two million of our federal employees came to work each day and tried to tackle their jobs using an IBM Selectric typewriter instead of a computer. They’d send messages by snail mail, there would be no document backup, and access to the breadth of information online would be nonexistent. Bottom line: extremely inefficient.

Now take a moment to think about how many of those two million employees the federal government would have to fire to make their work more efficient.

It’s an exercise with no right answer — there is no number of layoffs that can fix the inefficiencies of a typewriter. And while it’s a fictional scenario, there are similar lessons we can take away as Elon Musk and the Trump administration look to increase efficiency in the federal government.

While typewriters might be a thing of the past, there is an enormous amount of work to be done giving federal employees the tools they need to work efficiently, and bringing in the tech talent necessary to make good decisions on how to update those tools.

From processing tax returns to delivering veterans’ benefits, the efficiency of federal agencies increasingly hinges on technology. High-profile incidents like the early HealthCare.gov debacle — which cost nearly $840 million due to poor planning and oversight — underscore the price of not having enough in-house digital savvy. But there are also day-to-day inefficiencies — several federal agencies are still using mainframes installed during the Nixon administration — that cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

To build a more efficient government, we need a plan to expand and retain tech talent in the federal workforce that can help address these inefficiencies.

Over the past decade, there’s been progress bringing tech expertise onboard at federal agencies — and we’ve seen results. In 2020, the Census Bureau launched its first online census portal, improving user experience and saving the government an estimated $1.9 billion. Agencies like the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Housing and Urban Development have migrated systems to the cloud, saving tens of millions of dollars annually in IT costs.

Then there’s the U.S. Digital Service, an agency created specifically to help the federal government use design and technology to increase efficiency and deliver better services. Since its creation in 2014, USDS has helped the Social Security Administration modernize its website and services, saving an estimated $285 million. USDS also developed new digital tools for casework at the Department of Veterans Affairs, projected to save 17 years’ worth of staff time annually.

This isn’t to say that there aren’t cuts to be made in the federal budget that would increase government efficiency. In a $6.75 trillion federal budget, there are savings to be found.

But paired with an eye for wasteful spending, there needs to be a willingness to increase our investment in programs that help the federal government function more efficiently. Tech workers are easy to lose in D.C. There’s plenty of competition for their talent in the private sector. But it takes a concerted government effort to attract, grow, and preserve tech talent in the federal workforce.

This week, ARI led a letter to the Trump administration co-signed by over 20 tech founders and entrepreneurs in the startup community, urging the administration to help founders, engineers, and other key personnel bring valuable skills and perspectives that could greatly benefit government operations.

Bringing their expertise onboard to help increase government efficiency will mean expedited federal hiring, not just expedited layoffs.

The efficiencies achieved by modernizing federal systems and processes are not hypothetical; they are happening today in some areas of government, led by people with the right expertise. 

The challenge now is to spread and scale those successes. That means doubling down on recruiting, retaining, and empowering tech talent in government. The return on this investment is a federal enterprise that is faster, smarter, and more responsive to the people it serves — a government built to deliver in the digital age.

Brad Carson is president of Americans for Responsible Innovation. Carson is a former congressman representing Oklahoma’s 2nd District and served as acting undersecretary of Defense. Carson is the 21st president of the University of Tulsa.

Border technology bill passes the House

A bipartisan bill to accelerate the use of artificial intelligence in border enforcement passed the House on Monday, kicking the Emerging Innovative Border Technologies Act up to the Senate for consideration. 

The legislation from Reps. Lou Correa, D-Calif., and Morgan Luttrell, R-Texas, passed the House last year as well, but stalled out on the upper chamber’s calendar in December. 

Correa, ranking member of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border Security & Enforcement, and Luttrell both issued statements Monday calling for the Senate to move on the bill. The legislation — which would require the Homeland Security secretary to submit a comprehensive plan to Congress detailing how the agency could leverage AI, machine learning and nanotechnology to more effectively patrol the border — seems to align with President Donald Trump’s overarching border security goals.

“Border security means keeping drugs and other negative elements away from our communities, as well as utilizing cutting-edge technology that is already available to maintain trade and commerce and give our hard-working officers the tools they need to keep us safe,” Correa said in a press release. “With this bipartisan effort, Congress will better-understand how our officers can use new technology to stop the fentanyl trade.”

The bill also takes into account elements of the AI roadmap DHS released last year, specifically plans for the testing of technologies that bring about benefits to advance homeland security without compromising Americans’ privacy or civil liberties. 

“Securing our border requires more than just manpower — it requires cutting-edge technology that gives our agents the tools they need to stay ahead of the threats we face,” Luttrell said in a statement. “This bill passing the House with strong bipartisan support shows that securing our border isn’t a partisan issue, it’s a national security priority.”

In an interview with FedScoop last month, Correa said the legislation would cut through the “purchasing acquisition bureaucracy” to ensure DHS gets access to the best, most cost-effective technology to secure the border as quickly as possible. 

Luttrell previously told FedScoop that the bill to advance technological adoption within DHS comes at a time when “cartels and all the bad actors globally are really moving in the tech space, or in the cyber metaverse.” Those groups are “using those capabilities to defeat us.” 

“It’s unconventional warfare,” he added. “It’s really guerrilla warfare tactics at the border. [DHS needs] every asset they can have.”

NIST selects backup algorithm for general encryption against quantum cyberattacks

The National Institute of Standards and Technology announced an algorithm that could serve as a second line of defense to ensure encrypted information stays encrypted in the face of an attack from a future quantum computer.

The standard, called HQC, is a backup for the main “post-quantum cryptography” algorithm NIST finalized for general encryption known as Module-Lattice-Based Key-Encapsulation Mechanism, or ML-KEM. According to a Tuesday announcement from the agency, HQC is based on different math and provides another form of protection, which could prove useful if a future quantum computer deciphers ML-KEM.

“As we advance our understanding of future quantum computers and adapt to emerging cryptanalysis techniques, it’s essential to have a fallback in case ML-KEM proves to be vulnerable,” Dustin Moody, a mathematician who leads the agency’s post-quantum cryptography project, said in a statement included in the release. 

NIST, which is part of the Department of Commerce, said it plans to issue a draft standard for HQC in roughly a year for public comment and expects to release a finalized standard by 2027. 

While quantum computing is in its early stages, NIST has been working for years to get ahead of an eventual “Q day,” or the day that quantum computers can break through the existing methods of encryption that protect digital information. Current encryption is difficult for standard computers to crack, but future quantum computers are expected to be able to break through those algorithms, which would put information across the globe at risk of compromise.

The post-quantum cryptography, or PQC, algorithms being finalized by NIST are designed to protect against that scenario. 

As part of that work, NIST already released its first three finalized post-quantum cryptography algorithms in August 2024, including ML-KEM and two other algorithms for digital signatures — authentication for electronic messages like emails and credit card transactions. 

In addition to the announcement of HQC on Tuesday, NIST disclosed that a draft of a standard being built around an algorithm known as FALCON — which is also for digital signatures — will “be released shortly as FIPS 206.” NIST previously estimated that the draft would be published by late 2024.

Per the release, the HQC algorithm is based on a mathematical concept known as error-correcting codes. That concept has been deployed for decades in information security, including for NASA missions. HQC stands for Hamming Quasi-Cyclic, a reference to Richard Hamming, who is credited with developing the concept of error correction codes. 

According to the release, Moody said HQC is a longer algorithm than ML-KEM and as a result, needs more computing resources. It was selected by reviewers as a backup due to its “clean and secure operation,” the release said. NIST also released a report on all of the candidate algorithms it evaluated and why HQC was ultimately selected.

DOGE must comply with expedited request to release records, judge rules

The Department of Government Efficiency’s increasingly vast power across the government likely makes it subject to U.S. records law, a federal judge said Monday in a ruling that ordered the Elon Musk-led group to begin processing requests on an expedited timeline.

In a 37-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper concluded that DOGE — the rebranded U.S. Digital Service — “is likely exercising substantial independent authority much greater than” other components within the Executive Office of the President that are covered by the Freedom of Information Act, subjecting it to the same rules.

Cooper noted as examples that the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Council on Environmental Quality are both covered by FOIA due to the substantial independent authority they wield when it comes to the evaluation of federal programs.

“Based on its actions so far,” Cooper wrote, “USDS appears to have the power not just to evaluate federal programs, but to drastically reshape and even eliminate them wholesale.”

The judge’s ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed by the government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which submitted FOIA requests to the Office of Management and Budget and DOGE tied to their roles in the Trump administration’s mass firings of federal workers. 

According to CREW, OMB agreed to respond to the FOIA requests and process them on an expedited basis, while DOGE refused, saying it is not an “agency” that is subject to federal records law. 

But Cooper wrote that DOGE bears the hallmarks of an agency, making it likely that it is subject to FOIA. The judge cited three factors in that decision: executive orders that “appear to endow USDS with substantial authority independent of the President,” statements from Musk and President Donald Trump highlighting that authority, and DOGE actions to date that demonstrate that authority over “vast swaths of the federal government.”

Cooper also ruled favorably on CREW’s request for expedited processing of its FOIA, finding that the watchdog is likely entitled to a sped-up timeline due to urgency and widespread public interest. 

“The USDS Request easily qualifies for expedited treatment under either test,” Cooper wrote, noting the watchdog’s role in disseminating information about government activity quickly and the broad media interest in DOGE, which “suggests a matter of urgency.”

The judge noted that DOGE itself has operated “remarkably swiftly” since its creation via a day-one Trump executive order, pointing specifically to its drastic federal workforce and budget cuts, the shuttering of a federal agency and the cancellation of hundreds of government contracts.

“USDS appears able to do this in part because of its access to many agency’s IT systems, which help the department carry out its objectives at warp speed,” Cooper wrote. “But the rapid pace of USDS’s actions, in turn, requires the quick release of information about its structure and activities. That is especially so given the secrecy with which USDS has operated.”

Former Trump tech policy adviser Ethan Klein tapped for US CTO

Ethan Klein, an emerging technology policy adviser during the first Trump administration, has been nominated to be the White House’s chief technology officer, the Office of Science and Technology Policy confirmed Tuesday. 

After serving in the first Trump White House, Klein completed a PhD in nuclear science and engineering at MIT, where he worked to develop nuclear tech for arms control and nonproliferation with funds from a fellowship through the National Nuclear Security Administration. 

Klein also spent time at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which is operated for the NNSA and focuses on weapons development, stewardship and national security.

Klein has been pursuing an MBA at Stanford, while working as a summer associate for the Aerospace and Defense group within Lazard, a financial advisory and asset management firm. 

If confirmed as CTO, Klein would fill the same role that Michael Kratsios did during the first Trump administration, which went unfilled for the entirety of the Biden administration.

Kratsios, Trump’s nominee for OSTP director, said during his confirmation hearing that he believes it is “critically important for our nation to lead the world in emerging technologies.”

“The shape of the future global order will be defined by whomever leads across AI, quantum, nuclear and other critical and emerging technologies,” he said in his written testimony. “Chinese progress in nuclear fusion, quantum technologies and autonomous systems all press home the urgency of the work ahead.”

OPM inspector general will examine DOGE access to IT systems

An Office of Personnel Management watchdog investigation into cybersecurity risks on government networks and the potential exposure of sensitive information will include an examination of DOGE access to those systems.

OPM’s Office of Inspector General said in a letter to Democrats on the House Oversight Committee that it would incorporate “parts” of the lawmakers’ February request to probe DOGE’s unauthorized accessing of IT networks and Americans’ data into “existing work.” The watchdog also said it had “initiated a new engagement on specific emerging risks at OPM that are related to issues raised” in Democrats’ letter.

In that letter, Democrats led by House Oversight Committee ranking member Gerry Connolly of Virginia cited DOGE incursions into OPM, General Services Administration, USAID and Treasury Department networks, which they said raised “serious questions about the security protocols in place to safeguard sensitive government information and the potential for unauthorized access and misuse by private citizens without requisite clearance or any legitimate reason to access this information.”

The Democrats urged OPM’s OIG to coordinate with inspector generals across the government to “address these potential threats to national security.”

In the response letter dated Friday, Deputy Inspector General Norbert E. Vint said his office scrutinizes many of the issues raised by Democrats tied to OPM’s IT and financial systems as part of annual reviews, part of the watchdog’s oversight responsibilities “required by statute” and “based on developing risks identified through our ongoing risk assessment efforts.”

“We have also just begun an engagement to assess risks associated with new and modified information systems at OPM,” Vint wrote. “We believe that, ultimately, our new engagement will broadly address many of your questions related to the integrity of OPM systems. We will provide you with an update once we have completed our review.”

OPM was at the center of a week-one Trump administration IT controversy when a new server was set up to send mass emails to the entire federal government workforce. A class-action lawsuit was filed against the agency over whether it had properly conducted a privacy impact assessment before launching the server. Last week, it was revealed that OPM had quietly swapped out its privacy assessment for the system amid the ongoing litigation.

House Oversight Democrats on Monday applauded the OPM watchdog’s decision to dig deeper into the potential cybersecurity risks caused by DOGE’s burrowing into agency IT systems.

“Inspectors General must have the independence to carry out their mission free from partisan pressure and threat,” Connolly said in a press release. “That is the only way these government watchdogs can conduct their important work on behalf of the American people. The work of the Deputy Inspector General and the OPM Office of Inspector General must be allowed to proceed unimpeded.”