One-Time Allies Sour on Joining President Trump's Tech Team

The Office of Science and Technology employs just 40 people, down from roughly 130 under President Barack Obama. The president has yet to nominate a head for the office, or a chief technology officer. At 18F, a tech-consulting group for government agencies inside the General Services Administration, two to three staffers per month have departed since the election. Before the election, the department was adding roughly two employees a month, peaking at a little more than 200 employees overall.

“The swing there is about five employees per month, which after a few months you notice real quickly,” one former 18F engineer says. The Obama administration won rare bipartisan praise for bringing more technologists into government. It created the US Digital Service to improve delivery of government services; the agency helped save the troubled healthcare.gov website and digitized services such as veterans’ health records and the immigration review process. Now some fear such gains will be erased.