Who exactly is going to be part of DOGE is a particularly thorny issue, because there are technically two DOGEs. One is the permanent organization, the revamped USDS—now the US DOGE Service. The other is a temporary organization, with a termination date of July 4, 2026. Creating this organization means the temporary DOGE can operate under a special set of rules. It can sequester employees from other parts of the government and can accept people who want to work for the government as volunteers. Temporary organizations can also hire what are known as special government employees—experts in a given field who can bypass the rigors of the regular federal hiring processes. They’re also not subject to the same transparency requirements as other government employees.
> They’re also not subject to the same transparency requirements as other government employees.
Before anyone blames the current president without context, remember that the TSA is one of multiple agencies also operating under these provisions by having a permanent pseudo-temporary organization status. This is also why the TSA gets away with turnover and hiring standards that would be forbidden in other branches.
> What happens to all its engineers and developers?
The clever ones will leave. The naïve ones will become legal fodder for the rest of their careers. The lucky ones will make an impression on a billionaire and become rich from the proximity.
On the whole, the country may benefit from having young, talented and naïve engineers engaging in tasks at the boundaries of the legally permissable. It works for VC, after all. (The difference being you don't get personally bankrupted with legal bills in startups if you're wrong.)
> You think any of the H1B engineers at Twitter Elon did a pizza party photo op with are going to become millionaires?
I'm not calling anyone out. Just that a consistently-winning strategy in any economic or political system is finding the biggest pot of money and sitting next to it.
> The engineers and developers just got the green light for every good idea they can come up with.
Where in the world is this idea coming from? What part of their new mandate makes you think engineers and developers suddenly have a blank check to do whatever they want?
