House Oversight Probes Obama's Tech Teams: "Why Do We Have 18F and USDS?"

Nextgov: Lawmakers probed the Obama administration’s vaunted tech teams Friday, searching for answers about the sustainability of a model that cycles private sector developers and engineers into the government for short-term rotations.

Both the U.S. Digital Service and 18F, which function as consultancies for other agencies and recruit from tech companies including Twitter and Amazon, have been the subjects of a recent Government Accountability Office review. A draft GAO report surfaced concerns that USDS teams might leave agencies’ chief information officers out of the decision-making process, and that 18F will take several years to recoup its costs, among others.

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