A group of former government workers are developing a plan that a future administration can use to rebuild government services damaged by DOGE.
Tech Viaduct, an initiative launched by the left-leaning think tank Searchlight Institute, is made up of former senior government officials with experience in agencies including U.S. Digital Service (USDS), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and General Services Administration (GSA). Its goal is to create a plan for how the federal government might repair and improve its digital presence, services, and processes. And fast.
The group’s thinking is that actual implementation of government reform requires a long lead time, but political party mandates only last until the next election—so the next administration can’t afford to spend two years studying the problem. Instead, the next president needs to hit the ground running.
“It’s the combination of rigid short deadlines, such as legislation or election calendars, and every action happening extremely slowly,” Mikey Dickerson, a former administrator of USDS from 2014 to 2017 who’s now working in leadership for Tech Viaduct, says of the slow pace of government work.
“It’s good to slow down and be careful when figuring out how a change is going to impact people,” he tells Fast Company. “It’s not good when minor technical decision requires approval from 35 committee members, representing 40 different agendas. That second type of slowness needs to be pruned way back.”
A tactical plan for the future
Tech Viaduct’s objectives are to draw up a tactical plan for a future administration with options that vary based on political circumstances, including day-one executive actions and wider ambitions that could pass with support from Congress. With three more years left in President Donald Trump’s final term, the scope of their work is a moving target.
Part of their work is administrative, technical, and boring to the average civilian, like reforming government procurement, personnel, and oversight systems. But another part is public-facing: building visibility in order to drive adoption and support for the initiative. Americans often compare government services to that of the private sector, and the government is often found wanting. A brand rehab has long been in order.
Before it folded last year, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), was created out of USDS, the executive branch’s digital office. In place of those entities is the National Design Studio, a new office that launched last August and is headed by Airbnb cofounder Joe Gebbia. The office has given Trump initiatives the sheen of Silicon Valley web design, masking an agenda of government cuts in a shiny wrapper. This initiative is less interested in such window dressing, according to the plan it’s outline so far.
Tech Viaduct’s idea for day-one digital repair
Dickerson says he imagines a future president’s day-one executive orders could include a direction that agencies cooperate with a “triage team” to determine digital risks and needs, or stabilize and restore government programs so that they an perform their intended purposes.
Other executive orders could instruct agencies to stop illegal or unsafe abuse of private data. He says he’d like to see a transparent accounting of what happened to public data under DOGE. His bigger goal is the long-term, systemic improvement to government procurement and the civil service.
“It won’t be an overnight miracle,” Dickerson says. “It’s not possible to build, fix, or repair as quickly or dramatically as you can do demolition.”
Project Searchlight says it will take years to correct DOGE’s damage, but the group also learned something from DOGE’s efforts: Changing government fast is possible if there’s sufficient political will.
“What could be done if the mandate and power of and urgency of DOGE was used to build more effective government services instead of tear them down?” Dickerson asks. Tech Viaduct seeks to find out.