Months after confusion about its possible demise, the U.S. DOGE Service is reemerging and adding to its ranks.
USDS’s Chase Ausley spoke at Tuesday’s AITalks in his capacity as both a director within the efficiency-minded White House organization….
Lambert here: No, no, no! DOGE is not about efficiency!
…. and a senior advisor at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. His remarks focused on CMS’s ongoing push to improve how patient health records are shared via voluntary commitments from industry.
While acting administrator of DOGE Amy Gleason has been at CMS championing the health records project for some time, Ausley has only recently emerged as a public spokesperson for the project. Outside one other speaking engagement at a Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society event earlier this year on the same topic, Ausley’s leadership in the organization appears to be relatively under the radar.
Lambert here: “Under the radar” indeed. This is not definitive, but I’ve been entering DOGE reports since [checks table] 2025-06-26 (‘Big Balls’ No Longer Works for the US Government), with particular attention to personnel, and this is the first time I’ve seen Ausley’s name anywhere, including exhaustive reporting by Wired and the Revolving Door Project. (Drupal gives me a dropdown for existing entries in the “People” taxonomy when I’m entering report data. No dropdown creating this report.) Odd!
In a conversation with FedScoop on the sidelines of AITalks, Ausley discussed his role and the current operations of the group, noting that it is focused on helping agencies build technology and is expanding.
“We’re actively growing,” Ausley said. “We have brought on a lot of staff within just the last few months to U.S. DOGE Service that are deployed across a lot of agencies.”
While he declined to get into specific organizational details, Ausley estimated the organization currently has about 90 employees and will be close to 100 within the next month or so after recent hires. The USDS also has three directors, including Ausley, who oversee the organization’s work at various agencies.
For his part, Ausley said he’s been a director with USDS since June 2025 and is detailed out to CMS.
Lambert here: June 2025? See above.
When asked whether the DOGE’s previous involvement in reduction-in-force and contract slashing are still part of the mission, Ausley said the organization is “really just focused on driving technology strategies for agencies.”
Though efficiency is still a focus, he framed it as a factor in the context of building efficient, scalable and modern technology.
Expansion of USDS comes as the administration is simultaneously hiring tech talent for two-year stints via its Tech Force. When asked about how the organization’s hiring contrasts with that Office of Personnel Management-based hiring initiative, Ausley said the difference comes down to experience of the candidate.
While Tech Force is focused on bringing in people who are early in their career, he said the U.S. DOGE Service is “typically bringing on more mid-career folks” with management experience to help agencies with strategy, roadmap, and execution of projects. Per Ausley, USDS is also working with OPM on the Tech Force push.
“U.S. DOGE Service is helping actually interview Tech Force candidates that are coming through, and kind of helping them to kind of scale and deploy resources out to agencies,” Ausley said. “So we definitely are helping support OPM in that initiative.”
In terms of the USDS’s presence and mission at CMS, Ausley said he and Gleason are leveraging their backgrounds in health tech “to help drive CMS strategic priorities forward.”
Lambert here: “Drive” is one of those words. Listen to the corporate speak!
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