The Trump administration this week continued its quest to identify and cut what it views as wasteful government spending. Amid new executive orders, policy memos and contract cancellations, the government tech media covered the new developments:
Cuts to Contracts, Personnel
Agencies across government were ordered to cut their workforces and to review and potentially cancel contracts for consulting services. These developments drew extensive attention from the media:
- The General Services Administration (GSA) directed all agency procurement leaders to review their agencies’ consulting contracts with the top 10 highest paid companies, according to a memo obtained by Nextgov/FCW and reported by Natalie Alms, Ross Wilkers and Frank Konkel. Jason Miller at Federal News Network also got the GSA memo, quoting it as stating that the 10 vendors “are set to receive over $65 billion in fees in 2025 and future years. This needs to, and must, change.”
- In other GSA news, Jory Heckman of Federal News Network broke the news that GSA plans to cut 63% of its own Public Buildings Service workforce.
- The GSA memo aligns with a new executive order calling for a sweeping review of existing federal contracts and for agencies to adopt technology to “record all agency payments under certain contracts, display written justifications for payments, and give agency officials ways to actively monitor payment flows,” according to an article by John Curran in MeriTalk. Matt Bracken wrote in FedScoop that the order will require each agency head to partner with their assigned Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team lead in building the new IT system.
- However, Eric Katz reported this week in Nextgov/FCW that the administration is pushing forward with more layoffs and has given federal agencies until March 13 to deliver plans to dramatically slash their workforces. In FedScoop, Madison Alder cited language in the order stating that layoffs would target “unproductive and unnecessary programs that benefit radical interest groups while hurting hard-working American citizens.”
- On the topic of cancelled contracts, Nick Wakeman reported in Washington Technology that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) cancelled 28 contracts with claimed savings of $81 million, mostly involving service-disabled veteran contractors.
- Wakeman also had the scoop on the confusing “cancellation” of a major tech support contract with the Social Security Administration. Wakeman reported that the DOGE walked back claims that the action would save $231 million and changed that to a scaled-back $560,000.
- In the area of Defense, contractors are “on edge” in response to a vague Pentagon memo calling on Defense Department organizations to cancel consulting services contracts, according to a Federal News Network interview Tom Temin conducted this week with Stephanie Kastro of the Professional Services Council.
Cyber Concerns
As you might imagine, the actions taken by the administration this week stirred up a wave of backlash among Democrats, former and current government workers, and others. A significant number of the articles covering this wave focused on concerns related to cybersecurity:
- Tim Starks of CyberScoop covered a hearing this week in which House Oversight Committee Democrats accused DOGE personnel of jeopardizing cybersecurity by publicly exposing entry points into U.S. government systems.
- Starks also reported on partisan bickering over a bill to bolster the cyber workforce, which Democrats initially supported but have stepped away from in light of recent cyber staff layoffs. Weslan Hansen wrote in MeriTalk that the bill would provide federal cybersecurity scholarship support in exchange for two years of service in government cybersecurity roles.
- In technology trade publication Data Breach Today, Chris Riotta noted that former federal officials, intelligence officers and security experts expressed concern about the “security nightmare” created by the DOGE’s recent request for federal workers’ bullet-pointed activity reports. Riotta also published a similar take on the recent executive order to create a centralized procurement tracking system, asserting that “such a system could expose vast troves of sensitive data to hacking and foreign manipulation.”
- David DiMolfetta and Edward Graham reported in Nextgov/FCW that the VA’s ability to defend against hackers may be impacted after DOGE fired the co-lead of a project to make the VA.gov platform more digitally secure.
- Route Fifty published a piece by Jessica Huseman in which state election officials expressed concerns about future election security in light of the administration’s recent cuts at the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Congratulations
I’ll wrap up this week’s update on a happy note: Federal News Network is marking its 25-year anniversary by publishing a website spotlighting “25 pivotal moments that reshaped the way the government operates.” Each week, the publication will “look back on these defining moments, their lasting impact today and how they continue to shape the future of government and its workforce tomorrow.” Readers are invited to vote on which of those moments they view as most transformative.
Further congratulations to Troy Schneider, a well known figure in the government tech media space, for his promotion this week to president of Billington CyberSecurity. If you want to learn more about Troy and his work at Billington and at media outlets such as Nextgov/FCW, check out the interview with him on W2 Communications’ “Gov & Beyond” podcast.
I’ll have more news for you next week. I invite you to subscribe to receive these updates each week in your inbox, if you haven’t already. See you next week!