Tag: software

  • DOGE Senate Republican’s bill to consolidate software licenses could save 0M

    DOGE Senate Republican’s bill to consolidate software licenses could save $750M

    As the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) works to slash government waste, a bipartisan bill in Congress is aiming to bring the federal government’s computer systems “out of the Stone Age.” 

    The bipartisan Strengthening Agency Management And Oversight Of Software Assets (SAMOSA) Act passed the House in December, and Sen. Joni Ernset, R-Iowa, is leading efforts to get it passed in the upper chamber. 

    Ernst, the chair of the Senate DOGE Caucus, said the SAMOSA Act will “bring Washington out of the Stone Age and into the 21st century.” 

    Fox News Digital is told the bill could potentially save $750 million annually for taxpayers by consolidating federal agencies’ cloud computing software licenses. A source close to the proposal said “fixing federal IT procurement will be a key part of her sweeping efforts as chair of the Senate DOGE Caucus to downsize government and eliminate more than $2 trillion in waste.” 

    TRUMP ANNOUNCES EXECUTIVE ORDER CREATING TASK FORCE TO ‘ERADICATE ANTI-CHRISTIAN BIAS’

    Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, introduces Tulsi Gabbard, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be director of National Intelligence, during a Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025.  ( Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

    “If the government allowed meaningful competition in bidding for software, taxpayers could save up to $750 million a year,” Ernst said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Let’s pass my bill to force federal agencies to take commonsense steps when purchasing software, instead of throwing away taxpayer dollars like monopoly money.”

    The legislative proposal has the support of industry groups. 

    “The SAMOSA Act is a vital step toward modernizing the federal IT infrastructure, ensuring fair software licensing practices in its procurement and saving money for taxpayers,” Ryan Triplette, Executive Director of the Coalition for Fair Software Licensing, said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “There aren’t many areas in Congress where we see bipartisan support, but ensuring our IT infrastructure is as efficient, secure and cost-effective as possible is one of them. The Coalition for Fair Software Licensing will continue working with partners in Congress to get the SAMOSA Act across the finish line and signed into law.”

    The bill gives the Chief Information Officer of every government agency no more than 18 months to organize a “comprehensive assessment” of the software paid for or deployed throughout the agency. The review should include an inventory of all the current software, identify contracts for the use of the software and their expiration dates and list additional fees or costs, including fees or costs for the use of cloud services, not included in the initial costs of the contract. The review should then give each agency the information necessary to “consolidate software entitlements of each agency,” reduce unnecessary costs and “develop criteria and procedures for how the agency will adopt cost-effective acquisition strategies.” 

    Musk at Trump inauguration

    Elon Musk arrives for the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Jan. 20, 2025 in Washington, D.C.  (Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Images)

    On the House side, the SAMOSA Act was introduced by Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Pa., and co-sponsored by a bipartisan group of 20 members of Congress.  

    Ernst penned a letter in November to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy (who has since exited DOGE while reportedly weighing a potential Ohio gubernatorial bid), outlining “a trillion dollars’ worth of ideas for trimming the fat and reducing red ink.” 

    WHITE HOUSE CALLS DEMOCRAT CRITICISM OF DOGE ‘UNACCEPTABLE’ AND ‘INCREDIBLY ALARMING’

    Among the options, Ernst said “consolidating agencies’ cloud computing software licenses could save $750 million every year.” 

    She cited a study by Michael Garland, a software and government procurement industry expert, that found Microsoft and Oracle, the world’s two largest software companies, received 25% to 30% of their contracts “without meaningful competition.” 

    Citing one example of “vendor-lock,” the study found the government spent $112 million more to buy Microsoft Office than Google Workspace “in order to avoid perceived costs to switch.”

    DOGE office protest

    AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler speaks at a rally against the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) outside the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL on Feb. 5, 2025 in Washington, D.C.  (Kena Betancur/VIEWpress)

    “A five percent improvement in price performance, due to enhanced software competition, could produce savings up to $750 million annually,” the report said. 

    It also described how the U.S government spent almost $2 trillion on Information Technology (IT) since 1994, and about $300 billion of that expenditure has been on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software. 

    “On an annual basis, the government collectively spends $10 to $15 billion on new software and for the maintenance and support of previously purchased software. Unfortunately, the majority of the COTS software spend has been destined for only a limited set of software companies who have managed to create a largely vendor-locked COTS software estate,” Garland wrote. “Until now, the government has had little visibility into how resoundingly its incumbent software estate has been captured by so few. As a result, an oligarchy of software companies has been free to use fear, uncertainty, and sometimes questionable business practices to make authentic competitions against incumbent software applications relatively rare.” 

    Ernst’s letter also pointed to how the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) identified 10 critical federal IT legacy systems – or systems that are outdated or obsolete – that were most in need of modernization in 2019. The legacy systems were said to provide “vital support to agencies’ missions” but ranged from about eight to 51 years old and “collectively cost about $337 million annually to operate and maintain.” 

    Several of the systems used older languages, such as Common Business Oriented Language (COBOL). 

    CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

    “The government runs on ancient computers & software. Needs an upgrade!” Musk wrote on X in November.

  • Meet the young team of software engineers slashing government waste at DOGE: report

    Meet the young team of software engineers slashing government waste at DOGE: report

    Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk’s DOGE efforts to slash government waste and streamline the federal bureaucracy include the hiring of several up-and-coming young software engineers tasked with “modernizing federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” 

    Six young men between the ages of 19 and 24 — Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger and Ethan Shaotran — have taken up various roles furthering the DOGE agenda, according to a report from Wired.

    Bobba was part of the highly regarded Management, Entrepreneurship, and Technology program at UC Berkeley and has held internships at the Bridgewater Associates hedge fund, Meta and Palantir.

    “Let me tell you something about Akash,” Grata AI CEO Charis Zhang posted on X about Bobba in recent days. “During a project at Berkeley, I accidentally deleted our entire codebase 2 days before the deadline. I panicked. Akash just stared at the screen, shrugged, and rewrote everything from scratch in one night — better than before. We submitted early and got first in the class. Many such stories. I trust him with everything I own.”

    ‘VIPER’S NEST’: USAID ACCUSED OF CORRUPTION, MISMANAGEMENT LONG BEFORE TRUMP ADMIN TOOK AIM

    Elon Musk  (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

    Coristine, a recent high school graduate who studied mechanical engineering and physics at Northwestern, previously worked for Musk’s Neuralink project, Wired reported.

    Bobba and Costine reportedly work directly under Anna Scales as “experts” at the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM). 

    Kliger is listed on LinkedIn as a special advisor to the director of OPM and attended UC Berkeley in 2020. Kliger has also worked at the AI company Databricks. Kliger’s substack contains a post, “The Curious Case of Matt Gaetz: How the Deep State Destroys Its Enemies,” as well as another titled “Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense: The Warrior Washington Fears.”

    USAID CLOSES HQ TO STAFFERS MONDAY AS MUSK SAYS TRUMP SUPPORTS SHUTTING AGENCY DOWN

    Another post on the substack is headlined, “Why I gave up a seven-figure salary to save America.”

    Killian is listed as a volunteer for DOGE who attended McGill University after graduating from high school in 2019. Wired reported that Killian previously worked as an engineer at a company called Jump Trading that deals with high-frequency financial trades and algorithms.

    Shaotran was studying computer science at Harvard University last year and is the founder of Energize AI, an OpenAI-backed startup. Additionally, Shaotran participated in a “hackathon” sponsored by an Elon Musk company where he finished in second place. 

    Farritor, who dropped out of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has a working GSA email address, was previously an intern for SpaceX and is also a Thiel fellow. 

    Elon Musk

    Elon Musk speaks during an America PAC town hall Oct. 26, 2024, in Lancaster, Pa. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

    In 2023, at 21years old, Farritor became the first person to successfully decode text inside a 2,000-year-old Greek scroll using AI, according to the University of Nebraska website.

    According to Wired, Bobba, Coristine, Farritor and Shaotran have working GSA emails along with A-suite level clearance that allows them to work on the top floor at GSA with access to all IT systems. 

    Fox News Digital reached out to OPM and GSA for comment. 

    Speaking to Fox News’ Peter Doocy in the Oval Office Tuesday, President Donald Trump praised the intelligence of some of the young hires working for DOGE.

    “That’s good,” Trump said of the hires as young as 19. “They’re very smart, though, Peter. They’re like you. They’re very smart people.

    “No, I haven’t seen them,” Trump said when asked if he had met the team. “They work, actually, out of the White House as smart people, unlike what they do in the control towers. We need smart people. We should use some of them in the control towers, where we were putting people that were actually intellectually deficient. That was one of the qualifications is you could be intellectually deficient.

    “No. We need smart people. Some are young and some are not young. Some are not young at all. But they found great things. Look at the list of things. I’ll … maybe I’ll do it tomorrow. I’ll read off a list of 15 or 20 things that they found inside of the USAID. It has to be corrupt.”

    Elon Musk has also publicly posted online about the qualifications he is looking for and the strength of his team. 

    “If you’re a hardcore software engineer and want to build the everything app, please join us by sending your best work to [email protected],” Musk posted on X in January. “We don’t care where you went to school or even whether you went to school or what “big name” company you worked at. Just show us your code.”

    In another X post this week, Musk wrote, “Time to confess: Media reports saying that @DOGE has some of world’s best software engineers are in fact true.”

    Wired cited sources who raised concerns about Musk’s team’s clearance, and Democrats in Congress have been railing against DOGE in recent days, arguing that DOGE has received improper access to various government systems. 

    Musk has pushed back on the criticism from Democrats, including allegations about DOGE’s involvement in treasury payment oversight. 

    Donald Trump wins the 2024 presidential election

    Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, arrives at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Evan Vucci/AP)

    “The @DOGE team discovered, among other things, that payment approval officers at Treasury were instructed always to approve payments, even to known fraudulent or terrorist groups. They literally never denied a payment in their entire career. Not even once,” Musk, the chair of DOGE, posted early Saturday morning to X. 

    Musk also responded to Democratic critics, including those upset about his efforts to push reforms at USAID, saying the “hysterical reactions” demonstrate the importance of DOGE’s work.

    “An unelected shadow government is conducting a hostile takeover of the federal government,” a post on Democratic New York Sen. Chuck Schumer’s X account states, echoing remarks the lawmaker made during a press conference. 

    “DOGE is not a real government agency. DOGE has no authority to make spending decisions. DOGE has no authority to shut programs down or to ignore federal law. DOGE’s conduct cannot be allowed to stand. Congress must take action to restore the rule of law.”

    Congress

    Congress is racing to be ready to execute the recommendations of Trump’s new DOGE commission. (Getty Images)

    Musk described the effort to slash government waste and bureaucracy as a one-time opportunity.

    “Hysterical reactions like this is how you know that @DOGE is doing work that really matters,” he wrote in response to Schumer. 

    “This is the one shot the American people have to defeat BUREAUcracy, rule of the bureaucrats, and restore DEMOcracy, rule of the people. We’re never going to get another chance like this. It’s now or never. Your support is crucial to the success of the revolution of the people.”

    Since its creation last month, DOGE’s X account has provided updates on its work to cut government spending, including an announcement last week that it had cut more than $1 billion from federal spending through now-defunct diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and personnel. 

    CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

    “DOGE is fulfilling President Trump’s commitment to making government more accountable, efficient and, most importantly, restoring proper stewardship of the American taxpayer’s hard-earned dollars,” a White House spokesperson told Fox News Digital. 

    “Those leading this mission with Elon Musk are doing so in full compliance with federal law, appropriate security clearances and as employees of the relevant agencies, not as outside advisors or entities. The ongoing operations of DOGE may be seen as disruptive by those entrenched in the federal bureaucracy, who resist change. While change can be uncomfortable, it is necessary and aligns with the mandate supported by more than 77 million American voters.”

    Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton and Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report