Stories in Today’s Roundup
Social Security stops reporting call wait times and other metrics
Washington Post: Social Security has stopped publicly reporting its processing times for benefits, the 1-800 number’s current call wait time and numerous other performance metrics, which customers and advocates have used to track the agency’s struggling customer service programs. [...] The changes are the latest sign of the agency’s struggle with website crashes, overloaded servers and long lines at field offices after cost-cutting efforts led by Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service targeted the agency’s customer service system.
DOGE cuts have made it hard for Philly seniors to get Social Security offices on the phone
Philadelphia Inquirer: [Marcia] Chestnut, who ultimately lost her Social Security benefits and is fighting to reinstate them, said lots of her senior friends who are among Philadelphia’s approximately 400,000 recipients of Social Security benefits feel helpless dealing with the new SSA phone system, conceived by the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
‘Big Balls’ Is Now at the Social Security Administration
Wired: “Edward Coristine joined the Social Security Administration this week as a special government employee,” Stephen McGraw, an SSA spokesperson, tells WIRED. “His work will be focused on improving the functionality of the Social Security website and advancing our mission of delivering more efficient service to the American people.”
DOGE enters ATF with mandate to slash gun regulations
Washington Post: The U.S. DOGE Service has sent staff to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with the goal of revising or eliminating dozens of rules and gun restrictions by July 4, according to multiple people with knowledge of the efforts, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss plans that have not been made public.
DOGE-driven cuts could weaken administration’s ability to handle Iran conflict
CNN: “The government generally and [the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency] specifically has lost a lot of great cyber talent, and we’re going to feel that,” Jeff Greene, who until January served as CISA’s executive assistant director for cybersecurity, told CNN. “These losses will impact our defensive capabilities somewhere. If we shift more people to work Iran, that’s going to come from somewhere. And the more empty chairs, the less we can do.”
‘Suspended animation’: US government upheaval has frayed partnerships with critical infrastructure
Cybersecurity Dive: Massive workforce cuts, widespread mission uncertainty and a persistent leadership void have interrupted federal agencies’ efforts to collaborate with the businesses and local utilities that run and protect healthcare facilities, water treatment plants, energy companies and telecommunications networks, according to interviews with 14 representatives of those four critical infrastructure sectors, four former senior government cybersecurity officials and multiple infrastructure security experts.
The clock's ticking on codifying DOGE cuts into law
Business Insider: Several GOP senators sound skeptical about the $9.4 billion in cuts to foreign aid and public broadcasting funding that the Trump administration is asking Congress to approve, raising the prospect of a high-profile setback for the DOGE project just weeks after Elon Musk and President Donald Trump's public feud.
ProPublica: The vacuum left after the U.S. abandoned its humanitarian commitments has destabilized some of the most fragile locations in the world and thrown refugee camps further into unrest, according to State Department correspondence and notes obtained by ProPublica.
New York Times: An interactive feature visualising the effect of DOGE cuts to the United States Agency for International Development.
Senators Demand Investigation Into Canceled VA Contracts, Citing “Damning Reporting From ProPublica”
ProPublica: Senators this week called for a federal investigation into the Trump administration’s killing of hundreds of contracts for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Democrat Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Angus King, a Maine independent, wrote to the agency’s inspector general on Monday asking for an investigation into the administration’s cancellation of the contracts and the consequences for veterans.
Trump administration scrambles to rehire key federal workers after DOGE firings
CNN: Agencies hiring new staff, halting planned layoffs, or rehiring those axed during DOGE cuts include the Centers for Disease Control, Food and Drug Administration, National Weather Service, and Department of Agriculture.
Fortune: Opportunities in private-sector government contractors have plummeted, according to new data from Indeed. A 15% drop in job listings for the 25 largest U.S. government contractors since Jan. 20 coincides with mass funding cuts facilitated by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
40% of DC-area real estate agents say they have a client selling because of DOGE
WTOP: Listing service Bright MLS reports almost 40% of buyer and seller agents in the D.C. region worked with clients in May whose decisions were driven by federal government layoffs and cuts. And over half agents surveyed report that federal workforce reductions are impacting market activity.DOGE’s big illusion: the heavy costs of the Trump administration’s so-called efficiency
Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington: CREW’s review of some of the programs targeted for cuts by DOGE and the Trump administration found that the elimination or reduction of these government agencies have directly cost over 50,000 people their jobs. DOGE’s cuts at these select agencies and programs could result in a loss of over $10 billion in U.S.-based economic activity and the shuttering of programs that have put over $26 billion in funds directly back into the pockets of taxpayers. Moreover, many of these affected programs have both economic and less quantifiable social benefits.
What Did Elon Musk Accomplish at DOGE?
New Yorker: Even before Musk fell out with Donald Trump, the agency’s projected savings had plummeted. But he nevertheless managed to inflict lasting damage to the federal government.
Share this post