Yuzu

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 mandates all federal agencies send email blaming Dems for potential gov’t shutdown Workers call the partisan email "a vile slap in the face."

SCOOP — The White House instructed all federal agency leadership on Tuesday to send out a mandatory message to workers blaming the impending potential government shutdown on House Democrats, The Handbasket was first to learn. Absolutely no modifications to the email were permitted.

My story:

Agencies plan to decommission hundreds of .gov websites following GSA review Thomas Shedd, commissioner of GSA's Technology Transformation Services, directed agencies to eliminate the “low-hanging fruit” of unnecessary federal websites.

Agencies plan to decommission hundreds of .gov websites following GSA review federalnewsnetwork.com/it-moderniza...

18F files legal challenge A statement about 18F’s appeal filed with the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board.

We have some news to share with you. 🥄

Today we took legal action to challenge our termination, filing an appeal with the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board. We did this because we believe the elimination of 18F violated safeguards that exist to protect a nonpartisan civil service.

IRS’s Direct File wasn't open source while it was being developed. But somebody just made it public!

We love to see it.

Please leave a comment!!

HASSAN: What is habeas corpus?

NOEM: Habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country

HASSAN: That's incorrect

What DOGE gets wrong about tech and government Lessons learned by civic tech, forgotten by DOGE

New, from me:
The DOGE project was sold as tech disruptors who would revolutionize government. To try to understand why DOGE has failed, I point to lessons that other technologists who worked in government learned, but DOGE ignored. 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/what-doge-...

NEW: Columbia pro-Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi walked out of court today after a judge ordered his immediate release from ICE detention. His words to Trump: "I am not afraid of you."

w/ Liz Crampton

www.politico.com/news/2025/04...

Photo of Senator Chris Van Hollen with Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return.

They gutted CFPB today: more than 1400 out of 1700 RIF’d archive.is/2025.04.17-2...

OPM strips career HR from Schedule C appointments, salary setting “You’re about to see a s-------d of employees making” the maximum federal salary, one expert quipped.

“The Office of Personnel Management last week issued new guidance encouraging agencies to pay political appointees the maximum federal salary and removing career HR workers from the appointment process.” www.govexec.com/pay-benefits...

GSA’s tech shop begins layoffs to become ‘smaller and flexible’ GSA's Technology Transformation Services says its programs and products will remain operational “to the maximum extent possible” during these layoffs.

federalnewsnetwork.com/technology-m...

Trump has cut the part of the FDA that notifies doctors and the public when there is a safety problem with a drug or a medical device.

www.politico.com/news/2025/04...

Secretary of *education*

Exclusive: Musk's DOGE using AI to snoop on U.S. federal workers, sources say Trump administration officials have told some U.S. government employees that Elon Musk's DOGE team of technologists is using artificial intelligence to surveil at least one federal agency’s communications for hostility to President Donald Trump and his agenda, said two people with knowledge of the matter.

www.reuters.com/technology/a...

US marshals were mobilized to warn fired DOJ lawyer over congressional testimony, attorney says The U.S. Justice Department dispatched armed U.S. marshals to deliver a letter warning a fired career pardon attorney about testifying to congressional Democrats, her lawyer said in a letter seen by Reuters on Monday.

I guess we’re the mob now: “DOJ sent armed marshals to deliver a letter to fired pardon attorney warning about testifying” www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...

ATTN FEDERAL WORKERS: It has come to my attention that several agencies are now offering WiFi for you to use with your PERSONAL devices. If I were you, I would NOT use that WiFi. I suspect it's a way for DOGE to monitor your personal communications.

SCOOP: DOGE notified the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS) today that the entire staff is being put on administrative leave effective immediately, I’ve learned from an agency source.

They’ll be cancelling huge swaths of grants/contracts and starting a Reduction in Force (RIF).

Happy international trans day of visibility – from a federal employee within a government that has actively erased trans people 😢

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So, the DOGE kids intend to rewrite the social-security administration's COBOL code-base!

and they want to do it ...

... in *a few months*

I did a huge dive into COBOL a few years ago (www.wealthsimple.com/en-ca/magazi...) ...

... so let me explain why DOGE is *way* over its skis here

1/9

A public link to the GSA town hall from last week has been posted; sadly no q&a log: vimeo.com/gsavisualcom...

I helped build a government AI system. DOGE fired me, rolled the AI out to the whole agency, and implied the AI can do my job and the jobs of the others they've fired.

It can't. But, what DOGE accidentally revealed about themselves in the process is fascinating. 🧵

When 18F was "deleted" by Musk, we told you: We’re not done yet.

They can fire us, and delete our website, but they can't destroy our ideas.

🧵 of 18F resources for making civic technology serve the people, 1/7

Strengthening the Suitability and Fitness of the Federal Workforce MEMORANDUM FOR THE DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT  SUBJECT:       Strengthening the Suitability and Fitness of theFederal Workforce By the

So this gives OPM free rein to file Feds, right? www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

From the fednews community on Reddit Explore this post and more from the fednews community

GSA comments in the q&a section (bc they disabled comments) are giving me life: www.reddit.com/r/fednews/s/...

JUST IN: In new sworn declaration, DOGE administrator Amy Gleason says DOGE has 89 employees and no “formal front office or organizational chart.”

DOGE's 'AI-first' strategist is now the head of technology at the Department of Labor The ex-Tesla engineer Thomas Shedd has quietly become the CIO of the labor department as mass layoffs and federal workforce automation continue.

“Thomas Shedd, the 28 year-old ex-Tesla engineer and DOGE official installed as the head of the federal government’s Technology Transformation Services, has quietly—and perhaps illegally—become the Chief Information Officer at the Department of Labor, too.” www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/doges-ai-f...

Resources for unemployed federal workers: github.com/acolter/fed-...