She helped create the U.S. Digital Service. Now it’s become the U.S. DOGE Service

Former U.S. deputy chief technology officer Jen Pahlka reflects on USDS’s transformation into the U.S. DOGE Service.

As former U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer, Jen Pahlka helped to create the U.S. Digital Service (USDS). Today, the USDS houses Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), hell-bent on quick, disruptive change. Pahlka shares why the motivation behind Musk’s disruption of the status quo isn’t necessarily wrong, arguing that we must clear the “sludge” out of government processes to finally create the conditions for substantive change.