DOGE Has Started Gutting a Key US Technology Agency | Hacker News Reader

DOGE Has Started Gutting a Key US Technology Agency

wired.com

44 pointspseudolus17 comments

I'm concerned that this will have negative effects on both national security and government efficiency.

As an employee of a DoD contractor, we make use of several FedRAMP approved SaaS products that allow us to securely handle controlled unclassified information. Using these services has allowed us to quickly scale to meet the requirements of the national security programs we have contracts with by allowing our infrastructure engineers to focus on improving internal processes rather than manage a bunch of self hosted services.

There were a handful of other products from companies like Atlassian that we were hoping to be able to use in the next several months as they work through the FedRAMP approvals process. Unfortunately, FedRAMP is a component of the GSA's Technology Transformation Service[0]. With upwards of 10% of the workforce being laid off, I have to imagine this will slow approvals substantially. If this isn't addressed, this will only hurt the ability of US companies and government agencies to do their job.

[0] https://tts.gsa.gov/services/products/

Just be aware of the Chesterton's fence principle [0]

> "Chesterton's fence" is the principle that reforms should not be made until the reasoning behind the existing state of affairs is understood.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton#Chesterton's_...

This assumes they might care about damage they are causing. I see no reason to think so

Interesting. But Chesterton's Fence assumes we can always find out why something was put there, but often we can't, which makes adding barriers easier than removing them—leading to a buildup of unnecessary rules over time?

I was hoping for an explanation for why this is a key agency, or why it's more interesting news than cuts at any other agency. None are given in the article.

If i wanted to claim this article were propaganda, I would use this detail as evidence in favor

I upvoted this due to mass flagging of articles on this topic, but I don’t believe this article is high-quality.

I would prefer this one were removed and replaced with Schneier’s article at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43035977, currently at 150 upvotes.

Why is Schneier now using publications like wired as tech sources? That post is filled with what look like SEO links to publications funded by USAID.

Is Schneier himself now in on the take? I used to trust him. (edit: oh I see it wasn't written by him but by a ghostwriter for a different publication. Still he loses some of my trust for this drivel on his blog)

This is a peculiarly conspiratorial response to my comment, and I don’t think I’m equipped to respond to it. Did you mean to direct this to me?

Click on the article and see for yourself. Schneier didn't author it, apparently his blog is now more like a publisher.

>This essay was written with Davi Ottenheimer, and originally appeared in Foreign Policy.

I’m still so confused. You’re talking about the article I posted a link to? Did you think I hadn’t read it?

Edit: I guess I’ll try to respond in good faith, even though I don’t totally understand why you’re asking me about this. If you click through to the Foreign Policy article, you’ll see Bruce Schneier listed as the first author before Ottenheimer.

But really, I’m not trying to imply whatever it is you’re inferring. By all means, draw whatever conclusions you like from Schneier’s authorship!

A lot of political posts have gotten flagged lately, ostensibly for not being technology-related, but this one is explicitly about tech and software (and AI, no less). Can we get it restored?

The GSA facilitates the adoption of cloud services like the Cloud Information Technology (IT) Program and FedRAMP. So there are some areas where I'd say the GSA is key. Firing 60 early career staffers in technology as the article mentions doesn't seem too impactful to the mission. But selling off real estate and consolidating the staff could have a bigger impact as career staff ponder the "fork-in-the-road".

Flagged incoming in 5...4...3...2...

This could be good or bad depending on the gutting.

My cousin worked in government for decades and told me she was obscenely overpaid for one of her last jobs.

Paying over the market rate for talent is how you attract good employees. Every business has to do it because trained specialists don't get out of bed for a 5 figure salary.

I find it astounding that a forum of tech workers are talking about how overpaid government positions are. As if anybody here actually believes the public sector is where career money is.

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