...
By Kate Plummer
Senior US News Reporter
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
The acting head of the U.S. DOGE Service has said the government needs "to hire" more tech talent in its agencies.
Speaking at an Armed Forces Communications & Electronics Association International Health IT Summit on Thursday, Amy Gleason, who is also a strategic adviser for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services spoke out about the "need to hire and empower great talent in government."
Why It Matters
Her comments appear to stand in contradiction to the agenda pushed by the Trump administration. Upon assuming office in January, Donald Trump, along with the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) oversaw a shake-up of the federal workforce, implementing hiring freezes and mass layoffs to downsize the government in the name of efficiency.
Read More on Politics
Tech billionaire Elon Musk led DOGE until he fell out with Trump over the "One Big Beautiful Bill" and left the White House in May.
...
While there is no official data revealing how many people have been fired, The New York Times estimates the figure at 135,000.
What To Know
Gleason became the new acting leader of DOGE in February. She previously worked at the U.S. Digital Service, which was created under the Obama administration to modernize the government's technology infrastructure and was renamed the U.S. DOGE service when Trump took office in January.
Speaking at the summit, she said: "We need to hire and empower great talent in government. There's not enough tech talent here. We need more of it."
"If we could hire great talent for tech in the government, I think in five years, we can really transform a lot of these systems to be much more modern and user-friendly, and easy for citizens to engage with what they need," she added. "But we have to take advantage of hiring."
What People Are Saying
Speaking to Newsweek, Heath Brown, an associate professor of public policy at City University of New York said: "I thinking large-scale federal hiring across agencies and areas of expertise is a very good idea. Tech talent is one, but definitely not the only, area where the smartest and most dedicated public servants are needed.
What Happens Next
The federal government hiring freeze is set to end on October 15, 2025. Whether it is extended again, as it was in April then in July, remains to be seen. Once the hiring freeze does end, the Trump administration has said agencies can only make one new hire for every four federal employees who leave.
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines