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Billionaire investor Mark Cuban waded into the latest government tech shingle - up on Saturday , offering support on the social internet Bluesky for newly lay - off federal worker whose job it was to make government technical school work better .
Hismessage , which quickly gain traction , urged the displaced engineers and designer to turn the upthrow to their reward .
“ If you worked for 18F and got fired , Group together to start up a look up company , ” wrote Cuban . “ It ’s just a subject of prison term before DOGE involve you to fix the mess they ineluctably created . They will have to rent your caller as a contractor to set up it . But on your full term . I ’m glad to invest and/or avail . ”
Cuban ’s offer come after the government ’s General Services Administration ( GSA ) abruptly gutted its 18F engineering science unit , which helps other government agencies build , bribe , and share technical school product . Per Politico , the layoff affected roughly 70 individuals who learned the news around 1 a.m. easterly time on Saturday . Among other thing , the unit had reportedly built Login.gov , a dependable and private way for the public to access services at government means , including Social Security and the Department of Veterans Affairs .
The group itself has since trace its extremity as “ non - partizan civil servants , ” brand astatementthat “ 18F has worked on hundreds of projects , all designed to make political science applied science not just efficient but effective , and to save money for American taxpayers . ”
The early - first light layoffs tie to a Trump administration directive to shrivel the Union workforce and slash spending at the behest of Elon Musk ’s Department of Government Efficiency ( DOGE ) . The cutting were n’t a first for 18F ; according to Politico , two dozen more 18F employees were laid off in February when GSA cut probationary staffers .
Those impacted in the teeny-weeny hr of Saturday morningalso receivedemails late Friday from DOGE with the open line , “ What did you do last hebdomad ? Part II . ”
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accord to Politico , the emails — prompting employee to number their hebdomadal accomplishments by Monday — were wide distributed across multiple agencies , including the State Department , the IRS , and the NIH .
In the wake of these unexampled layoffs , Cuban ’s proposal gift an intriguing possibility : Could the very workers pushed out of regime avail remold the future of civil tech on their own terms ? As DOGE moves to dismantle agencies , even Musk has acknowledged fallout tied to the fastness with which his squad is moving . On Wednesday , Musk share that , “ For example , with USAID , one of the things weaccidentally cancel — very concisely — was Ebola bar . ” ( Public wellness experts have since said the regime ’s support hasnot been fully reconstruct . )
The question now is whether some percentage of the politics ’s grow act of terminate former employee will seize the moment , band together to work up the startups that could one day deal their expertness back to the government . If so , it would comprise a striking turn in the administration ’s efforts to shrink the public work force .
If Cuban has his path , at least one such building block , 18F , may find itself inside a private company the governance has no alternative but to bank on . Indeed , the statement put up by the team yesterday says they are “ still absorbing what has materialise ” but that they “ are n’t done yet . ”
Another Bluesky substance abuser even has a branding melodic theme for the inauguration , telling Cubanon Saturday , “ Name the new company 18FU . ”
