President Trump’s fast start demonstrates his high energy level and the amount of preparation he and his team did before his inauguration. He has issued a record number of executive orders, given several speeches, traveled to several states, and held lengthy press interactions. He also got Congress to pass the Laken Riley Act and get the Senate to put his Cabinet-level nominees on a fast track.
While these actions are impressive, there have been some surprises with federal government transformation and accountability issues. These items and a necessary appointment at the end of 2025 bear watching for individuals who are interested in improving the performance and ensuring the accountability of the federal government for the benefit of the American people.
The first surprise was the dramatic change in the scope of the Department of Government Efficiency. Contrary to statements by Trump, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the scope of DOGE was much narrower than previously announced. Specifically, while previous statements talked about a broad mandate regarding improving the organization and operations of the federal government, the actual executive order was much more narrowly focused on information technology matters. DOGE is claiming credit for much broader actions.
The executive order also noted that DOGE would be a temporary agency within the Office of the President rather than an external advisory group. While the decision to place DOGE within the White House will likely exempt it from FOIA requests, it will not insulate its work from Government Accountability Office audits.
DOGE will assume the staff of the U.S. Digital Service within the Office of the White House, which was established during the Obama administration. DOGE will have an administrator working with Musk and reporting to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. Ramaswamy has already left the DOGE effort, and DOGE counsel William McGinley has announced his plans to leave.
Many others are concerned about the scope of the DOGE’s mission and the need for much more transparency regarding its efforts. While the need to modernize and integrate the federal government’s information systems is clear, it is just a sub-set of much-needed and long-overdue major transformational reforms. The government has grown dramatically, lost control of the budget, undercut states’ rights, and not managed to link resources and regulatory actions to achieve outcome-based results.
If DOGE wants to achieve significant spending reductions and make a real and lasting difference, its mission needs to be expanded. It needs to recommend needed legislative actions. DOGE should draw upon the extensive work of the General Accounting Office, inspector generals, the Congressional Budget Office, the Joint Committee on Taxation, think tanks, members of Congress, and others for opportunities to reduce fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement.
While these actions can result in significant savings, more must be done to transform what the federal government does and how it does it. For example, despite a law requiring it, the federal government still does not have a government-wide strategic plan. In addition, it does not have a set of national outcome-based indicators to assess its position and progress compared to other countries.
The second surprise is the president’s unilateral firing of 17 inspector generals. This action violated the law, which requires the president to give 30 days’ notice to Congress for any proposal to terminate an inspector general with the reasons for the proposed firing.
Inspector generals are critical to the government’s efforts to address fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement. They are supposed to act in a professional, non-partisan and independent manner. Any attempt to dismiss an inspector general should be made on a case-by-case basis, for cause, and with advance notice. Whoever advised the president to take this sweeping action did a disservice to him and the country.
The 15-year term for U.S. Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, who heads the GAO, ends in December. Congress and the president need to focus on this appointment sooner rather than later. The statutory appointment process starts and ends in Congress since GAO is in the legislative branch. Any nominee for Comptroller General must be highly qualified and a person who will operate in a professional, objective, non-partisan, and non-ideological manner. In addition, they need to have broad bipartisan support to be effective.
Trump is dedicated to making significant changes in the federal government. However, he needs to make needed course corrections sooner rather than later.
David M. Walker is the chair of the Federal Fiscal Sustainability Foundation board and a former U.S. Comptroller General/InsideSources