Government Efficiency (4 Viewers)

[RobF]

I think this topic deserves its own thread, both to discuss generally the topic of government efficiency, and specifically the so-called 'Department of Government Efficiency' and the incoming Trump administration's aims to "dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure Federal Agencies".

The announcements have been covered in the The Trump Cabinet and key post thread, but to recap, Trump has announced that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will work together on a not-actually-an-official-government-Department of Government Efficiency, which is intended to work with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to "drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before," with the 'Department' to conclude its work "no later than July 4, 2026."

Musk has previously said that the federal budget could be reduced by "at least $2 trillion", and Ramaswarmy, during his presidential campaign, said he would fire more than 75% of the federal work force and disband agencies including the Department of Education and the FBI.

 

[Sendai]

“Although the White House has asserted that Musk is a ‘special government employee,’ we have seen no evidence that he is complying with the procedures and rules that ordinarily apply to such employees,” Whitehouse wrote in the Feb. 15 letter.

The Trump administration claims Musk doesn’t actually work for DOGE. He’s simply a “senior advisor to the president,” White House Office of Administration Director Joshua Fisher wrote in a declaration filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Monday.

“Like other senior White House advisors, Mr. Musk has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself,” Fisher wrote. “Mr. Musk can only advise the president and communicate the president’s directives.

The declaration was filed in response to a lawsuit from several Democratic states, including Rhode Island, that sought to block Musk and the DOGE team from accessing government systems. U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan denied the block Tuesday.“

Whitehouse to White House: Is Musk running the government without confirmation? • Rhode Island Current

U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) wants clarity from the White House on what exactly the world’s richest man is doing to help President Donald Trump’s administration slash federal spending.

rhodeislandcurrent.com

Methinks that 130 day thing isn’t going to matter.

 

[Optimus Prime]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It was a scene some federal workers found upsetting and tone deaf.

Under government-wide orders to end work-from-home arrangements and return to the office, employees in the Office of Personnel Management were shocked to be greeted on Monday with bowls of candy, balloons, handshakes from managers and people snapping their pictures, said three people familiar with the scene.

Many worked remotely for years, even before the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Employees in the office, the government's human resources HQ, say they can do most of their work remotely.

It was the first day remote federal workers who live up to 50 miles (80 km) from Washington had to report for work under orders from President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk to drastically downsize the federal workforce.

Six weeks into Trump's second White House term, many were still reeling from the firings of their colleagues as part of the Republican president's drive to slash and reshape the federal bureaucracy.

The Office of Personnel Management is the very nerve center of the government downsizing effort.

On Friday, OPM workers who took a government buyout returned their equipment and left the building for the last time. All the agency's recent hires have been fired and many other career staff have been sent termination notices.

OPM will not say how many in total have either been fired or taken buyouts but one source put the figure at 650 of the agency’s total 3,300 staff.

Bowls of candy were laid out, party balloons flew and OPM workers took pictures and video of them being greeted in the main lobby by acting administrator Chuck Ezell and chief of Staff Amanda Scales, the people added.

Ezell has been a central figure in executing the plans of Musk's cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency.

One worker, who declined to be identified for fear of retribution, said, "Being greeted with cameras in our faces and handshakes from the very people whose names have been on all of the memos and emails focused on undermining our agency and demeaning our work felt tone-deaf at best and mean-spirited at worst."

A second worker described the scene as jarring and a third described it as disgusting.

OPM was swiftly taken over by DOGE after Trump took office in January. It harbors the databases with the personal details of past and present government employees.

McLaurine Pinover, an OPM spokesperson, defended the welcome-back effort.

"OPM wanted to ensure employees returning to work at OPM HQ were warmly welcomed back. OPM is committed to making the workplace an engine for public service excellence," Pinover told Reuters in an emailed statement................

Remote federal workers in Washington greeted with balloons, candy amid layoffs​

 

[Optimus Prime]

 

[MT15]

Methinks that 130 day thing isn’t going to matter.

Nothing matters when you are unethical and lawless, right?

 

[DaveXA]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It was a scene some federal workers found upsetting and tone deaf.

Under government-wide orders to end work-from-home arrangements and return to the office, employees in the Office of Personnel Management were shocked to be greeted on Monday with bowls of candy, balloons, handshakes from managers and people snapping their pictures, said three people familiar with the scene.

Many worked remotely for years, even before the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Employees in the office, the government's human resources HQ, say they can do most of their work remotely.

It was the first day remote federal workers who live up to 50 miles (80 km) from Washington had to report for work under orders from President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk to drastically downsize the federal workforce.

Six weeks into Trump's second White House term, many were still reeling from the firings of their colleagues as part of the Republican president's drive to slash and reshape the federal bureaucracy.

The Office of Personnel Management is the very nerve center of the government downsizing effort.

On Friday, OPM workers who took a government buyout returned their equipment and left the building for the last time. All the agency's recent hires have been fired and many other career staff have been sent termination notices.

OPM will not say how many in total have either been fired or taken buyouts but one source put the figure at 650 of the agency’s total 3,300 staff.

Bowls of candy were laid out, party balloons flew and OPM workers took pictures and video of them being greeted in the main lobby by acting administrator Chuck Ezell and chief of Staff Amanda Scales, the people added.

Ezell has been a central figure in executing the plans of Musk's cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency.

One worker, who declined to be identified for fear of retribution, said, "Being greeted with cameras in our faces and handshakes from the very people whose names have been on all of the memos and emails focused on undermining our agency and demeaning our work felt tone-deaf at best and mean-spirited at worst."

A second worker described the scene as jarring and a third described it as disgusting.

OPM was swiftly taken over by DOGE after Trump took office in January. It harbors the databases with the personal details of past and present government employees.

McLaurine Pinover, an OPM spokesperson, defended the welcome-back effort.

"OPM wanted to ensure employees returning to work at OPM HQ were warmly welcomed back. OPM is committed to making the workplace an engine for public service excellence," Pinover told Reuters in an emailed statement................

Remote federal workers in Washington greeted with balloons, candy amid layoffs​

I wish I could comment, but would possibly make it too obvious who I work for. Not OPM, but I'm well aware of sheet like this going on. Absolutely tone deaf and forking gross.

 

[Optimus Prime]

I wish I could comment, but would possibly make it too obvious who I work for. Not OPM, but I'm well aware of sheet like this going on. Absolutely tone deaf and forking gross.

and tone deaf is the best case scenario

the other option is deliberately forking with people, which is certainly possible

 

[zztop]

Elon and his cronies are so forking stupid

Federal firings could wreak havoc on Great Lakes fishery

Populations of sea lampreys likely to run amok with US Fish and Wildlife Service cuts.

arstechnica.com

Cutting back the control program by one-sixth would allow over one million lamprey to survive, McClinchey estimated. Those lampreys would eat nearly 5 million pounds of fish, equalling $105 million in lost economic output and potential, far outstripping the cost of the workers’ salaries

 

[DaveXA]

If the country survives this Administration, and it's an open question at this point, this is going to go down as the worst in American history by a country mile. Everything else pales in comparison.

 

[MT15]

Elon and his cronies are so forking stupid

Federal firings could wreak havoc on Great Lakes fishery

Populations of sea lampreys likely to run amok with US Fish and Wildlife Service cuts.

arstechnica.com

Cutting back the control program by one-sixth would allow over one million lamprey to survive, McClinchey estimated. Those lampreys would eat nearly 5 million pounds of fish, equalling $105 million in lost economic output and potential, far outstripping the cost of the workers’ salaries

They don’t understand anything. Their ignorance is gob-smacking. Just amazingly short-sighted and idiotic. And there are those who say they support this mess.

It’s quite one thing to study a department, identify waste and carefully put some thought into eliminating it in the least disruptive way possible.

Then there is what Musk and Trump are doing. Just messing things up like the fools that they are. Or rather the immoral, unethical sociopaths that they are.

 

[Optimus Prime]

DOGE claims credit for ‘canceling’ contracts that ended decades ago

There were errors in DOGE’s top five largest cancelled contracts, all of which have been scrubbed from its website

www.independent.co.uk

 

[DaveXA]

DOGE claims credit for ‘canceling’ contracts that ended decades ago

There were errors in DOGE’s top five largest cancelled contracts, all of which have been scrubbed from its website

www.independent.co.uk

Dumbarses have no clue how a government contract works.

 

[Optimus Prime]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some U.S. government workers with top security clearances fired in mass layoffs overseen by Elon Musk in recent weeks were not given standard exit briefings and advised on what to do if approached by foreign adversaries, four sources told Reuters.

The lack of so-called "read outs" for workers with clearances dismissed by Musk's Department of Government Efficiency in February could raise security risks as they dealt with secret information on everything from managing nuclear weapons to protecting the power grid from influence by adversaries and ensuring the safety of U.S international development staffers, former security officials said.

Dismissed employees with top-secret clearances are normally given a final security briefing reminding them of non-disclosure agreements they signed when they got the clearance. They would also sign forms acknowledging that disclosing any kind of classified information is illegal and turn in their laptops, said the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Two sources with top security clearances dismissed by DOGE, one at the Department of Energy and one former senior official at the U.S. Agency for International Development, told Reuters they were not debriefed.

Another worker still at the DOE, said several of the 28 workers fired on Feb. 14 at the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the nation's nuclear arsenal, had clearances and were not debriefed. The fourth source is a person familiar with the situation at USAID.

Both DOE sources said the laptops of fired workers had been cut off from access to department data but that they were not immediately required to hand those in.

There were more than 1.25 million U.S. government workers, contractors and others who held top-secret clearances as of October 2019, according to the most recent unclassified report published on the issue by the U.S. Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC).

It is not known how many were fired by DOGE without being given the final security debriefing.

A DOE spokesperson said the department "is taking the appropriate steps to ensure all recently dismissed Energy employees are reminded of their obligations to the United States as defined by federal law."...............

Fired US government workers with top security clearances were not given exit briefings, sources say​

 

[DaveXA]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some U.S. government workers with top security clearances fired in mass layoffs overseen by Elon Musk in recent weeks were not given standard exit briefings and advised on what to do if approached by foreign adversaries, four sources told Reuters.

The lack of so-called "read outs" for workers with clearances dismissed by Musk's Department of Government Efficiency in February could raise security risks as they dealt with secret information on everything from managing nuclear weapons to protecting the power grid from influence by adversaries and ensuring the safety of U.S international development staffers, former security officials said.

Dismissed employees with top-secret clearances are normally given a final security briefing reminding them of non-disclosure agreements they signed when they got the clearance. They would also sign forms acknowledging that disclosing any kind of classified information is illegal and turn in their laptops, said the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Two sources with top security clearances dismissed by DOGE, one at the Department of Energy and one former senior official at the U.S. Agency for International Development, told Reuters they were not debriefed.

Another worker still at the DOE, said several of the 28 workers fired on Feb. 14 at the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the nation's nuclear arsenal, had clearances and were not debriefed. The fourth source is a person familiar with the situation at USAID.

Both DOE sources said the laptops of fired workers had been cut off from access to department data but that they were not immediately required to hand those in.

There were more than 1.25 million U.S. government workers, contractors and others who held top-secret clearances as of October 2019, according to the most recent unclassified report published on the issue by the U.S. Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC).

It is not known how many were fired by DOGE without being given the final security debriefing.

A DOE spokesperson said the department "is taking the appropriate steps to ensure all recently dismissed Energy employees are reminded of their obligations to the United States as defined by federal law."...............

Fired US government workers with top security clearances were not given exit briefings, sources say​

God, these guys are morons. National security means absolutely nothing to them. Traitors.

 

[Optimus Prime]

……Meteorologists and climate scientists say the center’s loss — which comes as Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency take a slash-and-burn approach to the federal government — would be major.

“I don't really know how to shout this from the rooftops any louder: If this actually happens, it would spell the end of U.S. numerical weather prediction — the scientific models, run on supercomputers, used to create virtually all weather forecasts,” UCLA climate scientist Dr. Daniel Swain said in a post on social media…….

A concerning new victim of DOGE cuts? Weather reports

Meteorologists say reported lease cancellations could making living in the U.S. dangerous again

www.independent.co.uk

Full text:

I run a private weather company and can confirm what Josh is saying is true. If it's a weather forecast, an app, TV weather graphic, Doppler radar stream, or weather model map, the raw data is coming from NOAA.

The US experiences more severe weather than any other nation on Earth. NOAA has been up to the task (death tolls have been falling due to improving tech, timely warnings and collaboration with local meteorologists). Firing 800-1000 experts from NOAA is a giant step backwards.

The tornado, hurricane and flood warnings you receive at home aren't automated. They come from local NWS meteorologists with many years of experience. Best forecasts are man + machine. NOAA was already short-staffed.

These cuts will make it harder to keep your family safe when skies turn threatening. Hype? Wait for it.

This isn't efficiency. It's insanity. A potentially deadly edition of FAFO.

 

[fooferdoggie]

……Meteorologists and climate scientists say the center’s loss — which comes as Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency take a slash-and-burn approach to the federal government — would be major.

“

But now we won't have Climate change so win win.

 

[MT15]

I saw a skit where a younger person wearing a MAGA hat was looking at their phone and saying “we don’t need to spend money for government weather reports, if I want to know the weather I’ll just look at my phone” and the government meteorologist standing there said “the weather on your phone comes from us”. And he just got a blank stare in return.

MAGA has a deserved reputation for being dim.

 

[Optimus Prime]

The IRS is drafting plans to cut as much as half of its 90,000-person workforce, AP sources say

The IRS is drafting plans to try to cut its workforce of roughly 90,000 people in half through a mix of layoffs, attrition and incentivized buyouts, according to two people familiar with the situation and not authorized to speak on the record.

apnews.com

 

[MT15]

Stop for just a minute and consider the lunacy of these disaster tariffs under the guise of bringing manufacturing back to the US, while at the same time carrying out mass deportation of the most likely people to fill those manufacturing jobs.