United States Digital Service

The United States Digital Service (USDS) is a technology unit housed within the Executive Office of the President of the United States and established in 2014 by congressional appropriations.
In January 2025, according to Executive Order 14158 signed by U.S. president Donald Trump, it was publicly renamed and reorganized as the United States DOGE Service, which includes the self-styled Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). However, the USDS still exists.
The USDS was launched on August 11, 2014, by then-President Barack Obama, inside the Office of Management and Budget within the Executive Office of the President. It provides consultation services to federal agencies on information technology. The agency's 2014 mandate was to improve and simplify digital service, and to improve federal websites. The mission of the agency is to "deliver better government services to the American people through technology and design."
Jennifer Pahlka joined the Chief Technology Office of the United States after having visited the United Kingdom's Government Digital Service, and she served as the U.S. deputy chief technology officer from June 2013 to June 2014. She helped found the USDS department. The HealthCare.gov technology crisis in 2013 accelerated the concept and served as one of the United States Digital Service's first projects.
The first United States Digital Service job application page was launched on January 20, 2015, during the State of the Union Address of President Barack Obama. Ten years later, by 2025, the expertise field on the job application page included Accessibility, Administrative Support, Artificial Intelligence, Communications, Operations, Procurement Software Engineering, Product Management, Product Policy, Site Reliability/Production Engineering, Talent Management, User Experience, and more.
In 2021, Congress funded the United States Digital Service until at least September 2024. Appropriations for 2024 were extended into 2025 by continuing resolution.
In 2022, the federal government spent $100 billion on information technology, but the cloud computing systems have only garnered about $12 billion, as much of the expenditure is dedicated to maintaining legacy systems that lack the efficiency, capability, and security of newer architectures. The Obama office improvements were narrower in scope and largely symbolic in improving federal information technology.
The first head of the USDS was Mikey Dickerson, a former Google engineer who had previously been involved in the 2013–14 rescue of the HealthCare.gov website. He was succeeded by Matt Cutts, who held the position until April 2021. The third administrator of USDS was Mina Hsiang. During the Biden administration, Hsiang led the USDS in deploying a new website about COVID-19 vaccines.
On January 20, 2025 Donald Trump issued an executive order reorganizing and renaming USDS as the United States DOGE Service, where DOGE stands for Department of Government Efficiency. Trump subsequently appointed billionaire and SpaceX owner Elon Musk to manage the changed department. The executive order also established a temporary organization within the United States DOGE Service, called the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization (USDSTO).
On February 14, 2025, along with other layoffs across the Federal government, several dozen employees who were part of the United States Digital Service prior to the January 20 inauguration of Donald Trump, were dismissed with an email saying, "Due to the restructuring and changes to USDS's mission, USDS no longer has a need for your services." Of the remaining 65 employees in the department, 21 resigned with a joint resignation letter on February 25 that stated, "We will not use our skills as technologists to compromise core government systems, jeopardize Americans' sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services".
The USDS has created:
The USDS sends an annual report to Congress detailing projects and accomplishments. Its federal agency work spans across the Department of Veterans' Affairs, Department of Defense, Small Business Administration, General Services Administration, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Education, and Department of Health and Human Services. By 2024, it had worked with 31 agencies across the United States Federal Government.
By 2021, the United States Digital Service employed 215 people and was looking to expand further.
In 2024, the United States Digital Service sent an impact report to Congress indicating:
Other Digital Services were created and modeled after the United States Digital Service:
In 2016, the United States Digital Service officially released a set of values: