Tech Viaduct

Too many government services are fundamentally broken and neither side has a plan to fix the problem.

• For decades, government services have fallen short of citizen expectations. Inaction and complacency, including by Congress, have allowed budget, procurement, and oversight rules to fossilize into a system that guarantees each program complies with ever-expanding checklists while its core purpose often goes unfulfilled.
• Radical reform that engages with all dimensions of the bureaucracy is necessary. Procurement rules, computer systems, and the civil service have evolved together and must be reinvented together. Returning to the status quo ante is not an option.
• Bold reform actions have come with long implementation timelines, but in the past decade, no party’s political mandate has lasted longer than a two-year election cycle. This means that a new administration must launch its agenda on Day 1. The first two years cannot be spent “studying” the problem. The plan must be prepared in advance, or the opportunity will be missed.

DOGE has caused immense harm. From dismantling USAID to foolishly dismissing those charged with keeping our nuclear arsenal secure, DOGE’s destruction will take years to correct.

• Most immediately, DOGE’s reckless disregard for privacy protections and rational service delivery has created new hazards that endanger all Americans. The extent of the damage cannot be known until there is a future administration actively engaged in undoing it.
• Yet DOGE has also demonstrated something valuable: rapid government change is possible with sufficient political will, including the willingness to bypass outdated bureaucratic processes. Future administrations will need to move with similar speed and boldness, but with the competence to distinguish between bureaucratic rules that matter—such as Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and privacy—and those that don’t.
• Our polling reveals that Americans’ trust in government has fallen to its lowest point in the last two decades. The public does not see its institutions as working in their interest, and worse, it does not believe in the government’s ability to do anything right. This is a recipe for continued democratic backsliding.
• The good news is that voters also strongly still believe in America’s ability to solve its major problems, and are open to trusting the government again if it can demonstrate better performance with tangible results.