On March 25, tech staffers and contractors at the VA noticed an unfamiliar name trying to push changes that could impact VA.gov code. It was Sahil Lavingia, a newcomer to the agency listed in the VA’s internal directory as an adviser to the chief of staff, Christopher Syrek.
Lavingia’s presence in the VA’s GitHub instance—a publicly viewable platform that houses projects and code for VA.gov—set off immediate alarm bells. It bore all the hallmarks of DOGE’s incursion into the federal government: Lavingia, a startup CEO and engineer with no government experience, all of a sudden had power—and was in their systems.
Since then, VA employees say they have had multiple concerns following interactions with Lavingia. Beyond his GitHub access, sources who spoke to WIRED indicate that Lavingia, who said on Slack that he wanted to digitize the agency, also appears to be trying to use an AI tool called OpenHands to write code for the VA’s systems. One person with knowledge says that Lavingia had been given what’s known as a “zero account,” which would allow him to be granted privileged access to VA systems.
In response to WIRED’s questions about his work at the VA, Lavingia responded by email saying, “Sorry, I’m not going to answer these, besides to say I’m unpaid. And a fan of your work!”
Lavingia is not the only DOGE representative at the VA. According to sources within the agency, the DOGE delegation also includes Cary Volpert and Christopher Roussos. Other known DOGE members at the VA include Justin Fulcher, who ran a telehealth startup that went bankrupt in the late 2010s, and Payton Rehling and Jon Koval, both of whom worked for Valor Equity Partners and appeared at the Social Security Administration along with the fund’s founder and Musk ally, Antonio Gracias.
These DOGE operatives appear to have no work experience that’s remotely close to the VA in terms of its scale or complexity.
Lavingia’s past work, however, appears to have informed his present outlook at the VA, especially when it comes to AI. In a blog post on his personal website from October 2024, Lavingia discussed how Gumroad, which laid off most of its employees in 2015, had achieved financial stability: “replacing every manual process with an automated one, by pushing all marginal costs to the customer, and having almost no employees.”
“Today, humans are necessary for stellar customer service, crisis management, regulatory compliance and negotiations, property inspections, and more,” he wrote. “But it won’t be long until AI can do all of the above.”
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