Your Response To DOGE Practices Matters

In early 2025, federal agencies found their worlds vastly changed under the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). But this isn’t just an efficiency era for federal agencies — state and local organizations will be impacted by changes and must prepare for new reality. Federal funding increasingly carries new requirements and funding sources have been slashed, leaving states needing to fund more programs. For example, DOGE terminated $2 billion in K–12 education grant funding, $880B (across 10 years) in Medicaid cuts, $11.4B from state health services, and more. Some state governments are even pushing their own efficiency initiatives: In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis launched a state DOGE effort tasked with surfacing duplicative spending and advancing tech adoption; Wisconsin launched its GOAT committee, targeting inefficiencies in service delivery; and Iowa also is targeting digital waste and fraud.

Even beyond the US, it is likely that other governments will similarly seek opportunities to aggressively push new efficiency efforts. With global volatility driven by inflationary pressure, talent shortages, and escalating citizen expectations, many state and local governments are under renewed pressure to deliver more with less — and to prove it. As massive as these recent changes are, efficiency isn’t a new ambition in the public sector or for many tech professionals in general. There’s always a drive to do the same (or slightly more) with less resources. It’s just that the current framing is shifting fast, especially for US government across both the federal and local landscape.

So what should we do? State CIOs now stand at a critical junction — caught between the promise of streamlined, citizen-centric government and the peril of hollowed-out public institutions dressed in the language of reform. Efficiency, when wielded with strategy and safeguards, can modernize legacy systems, rebuild trust in public services, and empower frontline staff to focus on what truly matters. But when used as a blunt instrument — chasing optics over outcomes — it can entrench digital fragility, compromise security, and erode public confidence.

The stakes couldn’t be higher. You’ve got governors looking for fast wins, legislatures seeking savings, and citizens demanding digital services that just work. Your next move determines whether your DOGE effort becomes a blueprint for smart reform — or a cautionary tale. First, understand your situation by defining three things:

      • Your sphere of control and influence. For many state, local, and education (SLED) leaders, budget cuts are being done to your group without the ability to say where and what. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. The first step is understanding what you as a leader can control and some broader decisions that you may be able to influence.
      • Your mission. In some situations, it’s not about doing the same with a little less — it’s redefining what you do, as cuts are so severe. Depending on the severity of the cuts, you may need to redefine the business and IT capabilities that your organization must be able to deliver given your resources. This can help make tough decisions to free up spend for more critical capabilities.
      • Your approach. These are defining moments in professional careers. Amid radical cuts is a unique opportunity for radical change with cultural appetite to shake things up using performance, transparency, and startup efforts such as digital modernization to drive out waste and scale mission outcomes. But the line between smart reform and self-defeating austerity is razor-thin. How do you land on the right side of the divide? You must define and communicate your approach to get your teams on board to serve the mission.

SLED CIOs Should Follow Three Principles To Set Themselves Up For Success

Efficiency, when done well, accelerates — not inhibits — service performance and trust. It requires intention, investment, and strategic discipline. Below are three high-impact, research-backed plays that every state CIO should lead with:

      1. Anchor efficiency in mission alignment. Efficiency gains amplify mission outcomes, not just cut costs. Start by aligning technology investments with agency priorities. Use outcome-driven metrics to ensure that IT and business strategies remain tethered through machinery-of-government changes and budget reshuffles. Rationalize and modernize core platforms with momentum, consolidate redundant systems, and elevate shared services using cloud-native architectures. Many SLED leaders will also choose to pause upgrades to major platforms that are not of central focus. Where possible, shift from bespoke builds to composable digital services. Consider whether moving to outcome-based contracts that reward value, not volume, could be valuable for your larger, more strategic services contracts. Lastly, operationalize AI for value, focusing on high-friction, high-volume touchpoints such as help desks and form triage. Look for reusable, non-constituent-facing use cases, as these are lower-risk and easier to execute on with reduced staffing. Augment staff with skills and automate viable tasks to free up staff for complex cases and innovation.
      2. Protect against classic mistakes/challenges. Rapid AI deployment without policy scaffolding leads to poor decisions and public backlash. Public trust is hard to regain, placing even a higher weight on getting AI right in the public sector. To combat this, embed responsible AI principles, including explainability and human review, into procurement processes and solution design. Prioritize use cases with minimal ethical complexity and high transparency. Implementing AI without clear objectives is like buying a plane with no flight path. Define mission-linked AI goals up front and invest in data readiness, ensuring that data is accurate, labeled, governed, and representative. Don’t greenlight projects until data maturity matches ambition. AI isn’t plug-and-play; without training, even the best models underperform. Upskill technical and policy teams through formal AI literacy programs, championed by chief AI officers. Lastly, and most critically, build communities of practice to share lessons and avoid repeating preventable mistakes.
      3. Keep an eye on the horizon for larger risks. Change leaves us vulnerable. Efficiency without security is a false economy. Baseline cyber posture against federal frameworks such as CISA’s Zero Trust Maturity Model and invest in automated compliance tools. Make cyber hygiene table stakes for any efficiency initiative, not an afterthought. Emerging threats from generative AI can power misinformation, fraud, and manipulation. Stress-test systems and workflows against generative threats. Implement content provenance, staff training, and policy controls to detect and respond to synthetic content. Software supply chain security gaps can collapse mission-critical services. Demand software bills of materials from vendors and integrate continuous code and dependency scanning into DevSecOps pipelines. Make suppliers part of your security perimeter.

Final Thoughts: Don’t Waste This Moment

You are at a critical moment with many possible paths ahead, so choose wisely. Your strategy must reflect the long-term vision of a better experience, better platforms, and better processes, and short-term moves can and must reflect this vision. Simply put: Align efficiency to mission. Automate with accountability. Secure the foundations. Why? Because in this showdown, the fastest draw doesn’t win — the most deliberate one does.