Op-Ed: Evan Swarztrauber: Federal software needs a DOGE makeover
Evan Swarztrauber outlines how the government can DOGE its IT systems in his latest op-ed.
On day one of his second term, President Donald Trump established the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with a mandate to modernize federal information technology (IT) systems. The effort spotlighted a longstanding problem: government agencies paying too much for inefficient software that wastes taxpayer money and puts our cybersecurity at risk.
To reverse this trend, agencies must look beyond the entrenched incumbents that have long treated government contracts as an invitation to fleece the American people.
DOGE was established after years of high-profile government IT failures. In one particularly egregious case, the Department of Veterans Affairs contracted Cerner for $10 billion to modernize the agency’s health records. Cerner was later acquired by Oracle, a widely used government contractor, which then presided over a worsening disaster.
The project was supposed to cost $10 billion. Four years later, the cost had ballooned to $16 billion with some independent assessments estimating the final cost could exceed $50 billion. Worse, Oracle misdirected thousands of veterans’ healthcare orders, causing direct harm to patients.
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case. DOGE helped uncover numerous other failures, including the Department of War’s (DoW) attempt to modernize its human resources system. DoW contracted Oracle in 2018 for the project, which was supposed to take one year and cost just $36 million. Eight years later, and running $280 million over budget, Secretary Pete Hegseth canceled the project, calling the overspending “unacceptable.”
These are just two examples in a decades-long pattern. Over the past 20 years, Oracle and its subsidiaries have paid over $340 million to settle allegations of defrauding federal agencies on pricing by charging them far more than commercial entities for identical products.
The continual failures trace back to the company’s business model, licensing practices, and incentives. Like other federal contractors, Oracle has built a significant portion of its business by locking in federal customers and collecting expensive maintenance fees while making it difficult for agencies to switch platforms or diversify their IT supply chains.
Taxpayers might wonder how a company with this track record keeps winning contracts, but that’s the point: when you make yourself the only option, you don’t need to innovate or cut costs. While Oracle may tout recent commitments to offer agencies a 75 percent discount, the scale of the “savings” only illustrates how much the government has been wasting.
Moreover, the arrangement risks further cementing federal dependency on Oracle, which the company has a history of exploiting when convenient. For a firm with negative cash flow and a declining debt rating, how long until Oracle looks to American taxpayers to balance its budget?
Bipartisan members of Congress are fed up and have re-introduced legislation to address the problem. The SAMOSA Act, co-led by Reps. Nancy Mace (R., S.C.) and Shontel Brown (D., Ohio), would require agencies to comprehensively audit their software licensing practices while streamlining the purchasing process. The bill would combat vendor lock-in and make software more effective and less expensive.
According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the federal government spends over $100 billion a year on IT, and far too much of that money is wasted on outdated systems and unused licenses. The SAMOSA Act is long overdue, and Congress should take it up quickly.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly while expecting different results. For decades, the federal government has contracted the same vendors who created these problems to solve them — only to watch them fail or create new problems along the way.
After cancelling DoW’s HR boondoggle, Secretary Hegseth said, “We’re not doing that anymore.” To make that a reality, DoW and other agencies must look beyond the usual suspects for their IT needs. By making contracting more competitive, and opening up opportunities to different vendors, our government can ensure that DOGE becomes a lasting legacy rather than a temporary reprieve.
Evan Swarztrauber is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation. Previously, he served as a policy advisor to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr.