Alt18F

We won’t stop fighting for a civil service that serves all Americans. We’re grateful for your ongoing support, and proud to stand with public servants past and present who continue to honor their oath to the U.S. Constitution.

The consequences of this campaign will be lasting and severe. When government employees are chosen for their political loyalty and not their expertise, the American people suffer.

Like the administration’s sweeping changes to Schedule F and its attempts to weaken labor unions, the threat to federal workers’ right to appeal is part of a concerted effort to undermine the nonpartisan civil service.

OPM seeks to consolidate power over employee appeals in new regulations Under a pair of regulatory proposals published this week, the federal government’s dedicated HR agency seeks to wrest appeals of suitability and reduction in force decisions from the Merit Systems Pro...

An independent agency, the MSPB exists to help protect the civil service against partisan interference. So it’s no surprise that the administration is attempting to remove certain appeals from the MSPB’s jurisdiction—again under the guise of “efficiency.”

The American people deserve transparency and accountability for the widespread harm caused by DOGE. We continue to pursue that accountability through our appeal working its way through the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB).

How Trump’s OPM director wants to attract tech talent after months of workforce cuts OPM Director Scott Kupor wants to bring on new feds with cutting edge skills, but the government’s recent flood of layoffs and resignations could complicate that effort. With a government shutdown ong...

Even as we move forward in our lives, we stand by our claim that our firings were illegal. As the administration now pushes to *hire* tech talent, it’s clearer than ever that dismantling 18F was not about efficiency.

Many of our alumni are now in new roles, working everywhere from state and local governments to civic tech firms, nonprofits, and startups. Wherever we go, we carry our commitment to helping build tech that’s effective, accessible, and in the public interest.

It’s been one year since the elimination of 18F. 🧵

New White House design team aims for ‘delightful’ websites — changing design ethos in the process Trump’s chief design officer says that his work shouldn’t be controversial, but his team’s track record has raised questions about who their websites are for, who they leave out and whether the White ...

“'There’s an animated GIF of Joe Gebbia throwing a punch at the camera. What is that about, in [relation] to governance and serving the American people? I don’t know what that has to do with me as a taxpayer that’s funding this team.'”

We're paying close attention to the sections on "reckless handling of Americans’ data" and "delay, degradation, and elimination of programs and services for Americans."

Cover page of a report. Text reads, "Breaking Government: How DOGE and Trump Cost Taxpayers, Federal Workers, and Public Services. Interim Staff Analysis. Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. U.S. House of Representatives. February 12, 2026. oversightdemocrats.house.gov"

Though this hasn't received much news coverage, we're sharing in case our community is interested in reading the report in full. Link in 🧵.

Federal CIO tapped for dual-hatted role at GSA Greg Barbaccia will serve as the acting Technology Transformation Services director and senior advisor to the administrator at GSA, while its previous lead, Thomas Shedd, will remain with the agency i...

"During his time at GSA, [outgoing director Thomas Shedd] has overseen layoffs across TTS, including shuttering 18F ... . ... experts raised questions about ethics and conflicts of interest regarding his employment setup, as he’s on a leave of absence from Tesla while working for the government."

More than a year after its formation, I continue to track DOGE's activities and try to shed light on their staffing based on what limited information I can find.

dogetrack.info

OPM seeks to consolidate power over employee appeals in new regulations Under a pair of regulatory proposals published this week, the federal government’s dedicated HR agency seeks to wrest appeals of suitability and reduction in force decisions from the Merit Systems Pro...

"I think the administration knows that employees will appeal if given the opportunity to do so, and that some of those appeals are justifiable, so they are trying to lessen the number of successful appeals and the ability for employees to fight these actions.”

Trump's Schedule F Rule Finalized A bizarro rule formally justifies politicizing public services

New, from me: Trump finalized his Schedule F policy, allowing him to remove job protections from career civil servants.

The new rule is dishonest and unmoored from reality in its effort to formalize the politicization of the federal government 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/trumps-sch...

Here is the User Guide for ELITE, the Tool Palantir Made for ICE 404 Media is publishing a version of the user guide for ELITE, which lets ICE bring up dossiers on individual people and provides a “confidence score” of their address.

A manual for ICE's immigrant-targeting computer system, Palantir ELITE, was leaked today.

Let's look at it, then step back to evaluate how far we've come along a dangerous road and where that road might take us. 🧵

One Year In: What We Know the Trump Administration Means for Public Interest Technology | Technologists for the Public Good A reflection from public interest technology organizations on the chaotic first year and what lies ahead One year into the current federal administration, the civic tech landscape has been fundamenta...

The fundamental question facing civic tech in 2026: Who should technology serve?

One Year In: What We Know the Trump Administration Means for Public Interest Technology - a reflection from @publicgood.tech @civictechallies.bsky.social
@wethebuilders.org

community.publicgood.tech/c/announceme...

A Year On: The DOGE Disaster A Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly of your government

New, from me: A year in, did DOGE deliver on its promises?

Not the promises it made to us (cut spending, modernize government, improve services). It worsened state capacity.

But it was part of a successful broligarchy exercise in state capture. 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/a-year-on-...

"What took generations to build is being dismantled in months, and with it goes not just expertise but what remains of the shared American faith in expertise itself."

America's New Dietary Guidelines The Dietary Guidelines for Americans reset U.S. nutrition policy by restoring science, common sense, and real food as the foundation of national health.

Lord help me, the National Design Studio is back on their bullshit. realfood.gov This website weighs in at 16 (*six.* *teen.*) MB. The full game of the original DOOM was 12MB. 1/

Trump’s Tech Force treads familiar ground for former government tech leaders One former U.S. Digital Service worker called the new project a ‘slap in the face’ to those laid off at the beginning of the Trump administration.

"... a former product manager at the U.S. Digital Service said the Trump administration laid off, fired, or offered deferred resignations to 'amazingly talented' engineers and data scientists earlier this year and is now searching for replacements with less experience. 'It’s comical.'"

A tweet from Big Balls, linking to techforce.gov reads: Our first website using the new America Design System! Building a framework for beautiful, performant, secure and inexpensive websites to be very easy to build in Government.

This tweet from Big Balls says the new “Tech Force” website is their first using the “America Design System.” Here are just a few reasons why that sucks. 🧵

Trump admin launches US Tech Force to recruit temporary workers after shedding thousands this year Some of the recruits to government service will be on leaves of absence from private sector companies while working for government — a setup that raises ethical questions about conflicts of interest.

"The creation of the Tech Force follows the administration’s hasty closure of several of the government's existing technology teams ... . In March, GSA dismantled 18F, an internal government tech consultancy group, after Elon Musk posted on X that the group had been 'deleted.'” 🤷‍♂️

"The existing NDS sites therefore behave more like billboards than public infrastructure. ... What makes this shift hardest to justify is that the federal government already had ... [an] office whose job was to actually make government UX work better. From 2014 to 2025, that work lived inside 18F."

DOGE Isn’t Dead. Here’s What Its Operatives Are Doing Now Contrary to popular reports, DOGE has “burrowed into the agencies like ticks,” government sources tell WIRED.

DOGE may no longer be moving across the government in a move-fast-and-break-things blitz, but its affiliates appear to be digging in for the long haul—and Silicon Valley–shaped fingerprints remain all over the way agencies continue to be run.

'Sloppy' Code and Accessibility Issues: The Trouble With Trump's Silicon Valley-Inspired Web Design Project “Some of these sites feel like another round of ‘move fast and break things,’” a former federal web designer told NOTUS.

In September, I (and many other accessibility advocates) reviewed the America by Design website, finding sloppy AI-generated code and accessibility bugs.

@notus.com wrote on it, and also spoke to many amazing folks from @alt18f.bsky.social and @ethanmarcotte.com

www.notus.org/trump-white-...

DOGE no longer has ‘centralized leadership’ under White House tech team, personnel head says The team that was altered to house DOGE — formerly the U.S. Digital Service — is also still doing its own technology work across agencies.

The "DOGE is gone" articles are clickbait but this one gets it closer to the truth: DOGE is not gone, it just claims to have "no centralized leadership" anymore -- in other words, its leadership is hiding in an attempt to avoid blame.

"It's hard to see [accessibility issues on new .gov sites] as anything but a deliberate choice. That also sends a clear message of who this administration feels has a place in American life, who is worthy enough to access information and services and who is not worth their time."