Building a bridge to the post-Trump world
Tech Viaduct and our plan to reverse DOGE
One year into Trump’s final term, many in Washington are still grappling with one of his administration’s most controversial projects. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was created, ostensibly, to streamline government service and cut waste. By any objective measure, the agency did the opposite. The meme-inspired agency burst out of the dead shell of the U.S. Digital Service like a parasitic wasp, and went on to attack multiple agencies with unprecedented access to data, hiring decisions, and power.
DOGE has shown us all that the slow and deliberate is no match against the quick and reckless. It has done immense harm, and people are right in calling out its failures and flat out lies. But the chaos of DOGE cannot be followed by a return to the status quo operation of government systems that were already woefully inadequate for the modern age.
Trump’s term will come to an end. Those of us who care about rebuilding institutions worthy of the public’s trust have a responsibility to be thoughtful about what comes next.
This is the premise behind Searchlight’s Tech Viaduct. This multi-year project will take the ultimate lesson from DOGE—that you can, in fact, do things—and apply it thoughtfully across the government to improve service delivery for every American. The end product will be a series of actionable steps future administrations can take, starting on Day One, to restore faith that our government can do the things its citizens need it to do.
The immediate reaction to DOGE failed to acknowledge a core truth about the federal bureaucracy: many systems are broken and have been for some time. If you roll back the destruction of a broken system, you still have a broken system. DOGE showcased how much power the executive branch has over its respective agencies. Some of its speed was enabled by breaking laws, but much of it required only the will. Tech Viaduct will not be simply an exercise in repair, but a deliberate effort to rethink how government services are delivered in the first place.
People deserve a government that shows up, works hard, and delivers. Unlike DOGE, Tech Viaduct believes in the services everyday Americans rely upon. But it rejects the idea that any particular process, structure, or system should be protected simply because it had successes in times long past. There are no sacred cows in delivery. All rules and processes represent a tradeoff among competing interests, and those interests shift over time. When a rule blocks the delivery of the best services possible, that tradeoff should be re-examined.
Institutional shortcomings are legion — inappropriate data-sharing authorities, bureaucratic bloat, and countless redundancies, which are often felt downstream in the user experience. To most Americans, these layers of bureaucracy and delay do not come across as safety and care, even when that was their intent. They are seen as a middle finger, a denial of services that were paid for in taxes, and a government that is unresponsive to its people.
Public servants also feel this inefficiency. These Americans work every day in countless, critical ways—ensuring our water is clean, our social security checks post on time, our planes fly in safe airspace, and the Devil’s Hole pupfish survive for another generation. Public servants bear the burdens of antiquated processes and regulations more than anyone else. They demoralize the workforce and detract from the mission.
Nothing has done more to undermine trust in institutions than the state of those institutions themselves. If government systems were reliable and efficient, DOGE’s smash-and-grab approach would never have been tolerated. That is the uncomfortable truth. Tech Viaduct will face that truth head on, and arm future public servants with the tools necessary to deliver on America’s big promises.
Donald Trump rode back into office in no small part due to frustration with “the way things were.” Delivering effectively and efficiently for the American people is the contribution we can make to pull America back from the edge of autocracy. If policymakers on the left take nothing else from this second turn at the chaos wheel, let it be this: Don’t hesitate. Just do.
Hesitation is costly, and America cannot afford to learn this lesson again.
Mikey Dickerson is a senior advisor for Tech Viaduct. He previously served as Administrator of the United States Digital Service under President Obama.
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If the goal is to repair the damage DOGE has done and make government truly work efficiently, then you must start with government employees. Three things are needed.
First, you must rebuild the faith and trust that government employees previously had with their government. They accepted lower wages than comparable private sector jobs for a career in public service, in exchange for a good benefits and a promise they would not be fired without cause. The latter has been grossly violated. In addition, and particularly within agencies which promulgate regulations over industry, federal employees now work under the threat of being fired unless they (1) violate their own regulations and guidance to favor the industries they previously regulated, and (2) promulgate new regulations that conflict with statutory authorities. This has rendered their original mission of actual public service meaningless and perverted. The combined effect is that government service has become completely unattractive to all except those who are willing to do anything for a job. To the maga minions, this is fine because their puppeteers will it, but the end result is that the public good is largely sacrificed to benefit the wealthy and powerful.
Second, the public sector has always had some waste and inefficiency, which must be addressed. This has largely resulted from middle and upper management not having the will to fire underperforming and/or irresponsible employees because the process is so daunting and contingent upon subjective measures. Although the percentage of the budget devoted to government employee salaries is tiny, this issue is what republicans have always pointed to, and it must be reformed. The need for this reform should be acknowledged, be government-wide, and open and transparent to the public. In addition, this process of improvement must be regularly revisited, maintained, and revised as necessary. The end goal should be that the public has demonstrable evidence that that government employees are devoted public servants who do their jobs well and deserve their salaries.
Third, and most difficult, regulatory agencies must be better insulated from the destructive cycle of political interference from the executive branch. Few understand that all regulations flow from enabling legislation. Frequently, this legislation is specific as to what these regulations must contain. We must end the willful disregard of, and corruption of properly promulgated regulations by the succeeding administration. If a regulatory agency promulgates a rule, that rule must be followed and enforced, until and if, a new rule if promulgated to replace it. Obviously, addressing this one issue involves wider considerations involving the roles and authorities of the (supposedly) co-equal branches of government. And, the only obvious mechanism now in place that can be revived or reinforced to ensure this happens is the office of Ombudsman. Not all regulatory agencies have this position and the powers granted to it are limited and frequently emasculated. Strengthening this position or establishing another like it would be a good step forward.
DOGE failed because it was tech-first with little understanding of process. This suggested approach is better, but an insufficient improvement.
The proper phasing of product and process improvement for more efficient and effective government products is to:
1. eliminate;
2. consolidate; then
3. automate such processes.