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My name is David Nelson, and I work for the IRS as a tax examining technician. I'm speaking out because our systems are incredibly outdated and not integrated, which handcuffs us. I'm not afraid of losing my career if it means I can help the American people and my colleagues at the IRS. We use a program called IDRS, dating back to the late 1960s. It significantly impacts our efficiency; it's absurd that the US tax system relies on such an old program. I've even created a solution as a hobby to improve things. Congress has been notified about this for years, and while the Inflation Reduction Act provided some funds, it was just a band-aid, not a real fix. I want to set an example for my children and do the right thing.

Doge aims to cut the deficit by $1 trillion by reducing waste and fraud, targeting a 15% reduction in federal spending. Astonishingly, billions are wasted routinely, like a billion-dollar charge for a simple online survey. The goal is to cut waste by $4 billion daily, and Doge publishes findings on doge.gov for transparency. A key project involves digitizing the government retirement process, currently a paper-based system housed in a mine with 400 million documents. The aim is to reduce processing time from months to days, offering civil servants a modern experience. Doge is also addressing IT issues, including outdated systems and cybersecurity vulnerabilities. For example, 40% of Social Security phone calls are from fraudsters attempting to steal benefits. Doge aims to improve the system, ensuring legitimate recipients receive their benefits. There are 15-20 million fraudulent social security numbers floating around. Other findings include 27 CIOs at NIH with 700 non-connected IT systems, overstaffing, and a single Treasury bank account for all federal payments, lacking proper oversight. There are 4.6 million government credit cards for 2.3 million employees. Small business loans have been given to those under 11 and over 120 years old.

We're exploring ways to improve the Postal Service, which has been losing significant amounts of money. One option is a potential merger with the Commerce Department. The goal is to create a more efficient postal service. Whether it's a full merger or simply leveraging talented people from other departments, we aim to reduce the losses. The Postal Service will remain, but we believe we can significantly improve its operations and financial performance. We're considering all options to keep it very similar to what it is now, but in a way that prevents it from losing tremendous amounts of money.

The records Joe Gebbia was trying to digitize were stored at Iron Mountain, about an hour north of Pittsburgh, in Boyers, Pennsylvania, where there is a limestone mine 220 feet underground. Since 1960, the federal government has used the mine as a retirement office. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) keeps about 450 employees working down there full-time alongside 26,000 file cabinets holding over 400 million paper records. The site processes about 10,000 federal retirements every month by hand. A key point discussed is that the issue is not that technology has failed to digitize the records. Every administration since Reagan has tried to digitize the records, and the attempts failed for multiple reasons. The transcript says that doing it correctly, lawfully and with the Federal Office of Personnel’s required legal protections, is very expensive and politically contentious. It also claims that physical paperwork in a mine has a different level of protection than digitized paperwork. The transcript then describes a strategy attributed to Joe Gebbia and his team at Doge: they began moving the records onto the digital infrastructure controlled by the White House. Rather than digitizing under legal guardrails, the transcript says they worked around the legal guardrails and “called it a day.” The speaker describes an investigation into what Gebbia was doing with National Design Studio, saying they ran into roadblocks when trying to follow the money. The transcript states that the work appears to be done “off the books,” with no contracts on USAspending, the office not registered on SAM.gov as a federal procurement entity, and National Design Studio not technically existing. When the speaker could not follow money, they say they followed the data instead, arguing that data leaves residual traces. The transcript then connects this approach to what Larry Ellison’s company was doing over the prior decade. It describes Oracle running a network of tracking tools embedded across the internet to build “digital dossiers,” files containing very sensitive information about people, including where they lived, where they banked, what they bought, and political views, race, and other information. It says Ellison publicly claimed in 2015 that Oracle had dossiers on roughly 5 billion people. The transcript adds that Oracle was sued in federal court in 2022 for building those files without consent, and that in July 2024 Oracle settled for $115 million and shut the entire operation down. The transcript concludes by stating that five months after Oracle’s dossier operation ended, Joe Gebbia joined Doge in the White House.

Replica case folders are used when government employees retire. Compiling these folders is done by hand and takes six months. The process involves moving the folders around on carts through a mine for storage. Calculations are also done by hand. The speaker states that processing these folders is more difficult than doing taxes in the dark. They are bringing this retirement process online with modern software. As of tonight, 25 retirees are going through an entirely online retirement process for the first time. This is a collaboration with retirement services inside OPM. The record for one retiree is a whole pallet with 27 boxes of paper.

Governments lack the incentive to adapt and improve because they can't fail like private sector organizations. The technology revolution has transformed private sector organizations, but government organizations have not fully adapted. Government financial systems are decades old. It is claimed that $2.3 trillion in transactions cannot be tracked. Information cannot be shared within a single building because it's stored on dozens of different, inaccessible, and incompatible technological systems.

Sam Korkos, a special advisor within the US Treasury, and Treasury Secretary Scott Vessant, discuss modernizing the IRS. Korkos is reviewing the IRS's modernization program, which is 30 years behind schedule and $15 billion over budget. The goal is to update the IRS's legacy infrastructure, which still uses old mainframes. Korkos says the IRS has talented software developers, but they haven't been empowered to make decisions. Vessant says entrenched interests and consultants have constricted themselves around the IRS, costing taxpayers unbelievable amounts of money. Korkos notes the IRS processes the same amount of data as a mid-sized bank, but with far more IT staff and a much larger budget, 80% of which goes to contractors and licenses. Vessant says his priorities for the IRS are collections, privacy, and customer service, none of which are being well served. Korkos has stopped work and cut about $1.5 billion from the modernization budget. He says the career staff has been cooperative. Vessant wants the American people to understand what is being done to make government work better, cheaper, faster, and with more privacy.

Milton Friedman once noted that government management often leads to shortages. This applies to the U.S. Postal Service, which was promised a $107 billion bailout in 2020 to achieve financial stability by 2031. However, losses have increased, with $6.5 billion lost in 2023 and projected losses of $9.5 billion in 2024. Instead of cutting costs like a private business would, the USPS has converted over 190,000 workers into higher-paid career roles, worsening its financial situation. Despite spending billions on electric vehicles and facility upgrades, service has declined. Congress has provided $120 billion in funding over four years, but with national debt exceeding $36 trillion, it's time for meaningful reform at the Postal Service.

Doge aims to cut the federal deficit by $1 trillion by reducing waste and fraud, targeting a 15% spending reduction without affecting critical services. Astonishingly, billions are wasted routinely, like a billion-dollar charge for a simple online survey. Doge aims to cut $4 billion daily and publishes findings on doge.gov for transparency. The team found a mine in Pennsylvania housing 400 million paper retirement documents, a process from the 1950s they plan to digitize for faster processing. Government IT costs $100 billion, maintaining systems over 50 years old. Social Security faces fraud, with 40% of calls being from fraudsters trying to steal benefits. Doge aims to protect legitimate recipients and ensure website stability. There are 15-20 million potentially fraudulent Social Security numbers in the system. NIH has 27 centers with 700 IT systems that don't connect and 27 CIOs. The federal government has a one-way ratchet workforce, leading to duplicative functions like 40 communications offices at HHS. The IRS has 1,400 people provisioning laptops and cell phones, a task that could be done monthly by a fraction of that staff. Treasury uses one main bank account for all outgoing payments, lacking basic financial controls and auditability. There's $500 billion in fraud annually. Small business loans were given to those under 11 and over 120 years old due to systems not cross-referencing data. Fraudsters exploit the "alive" status in Social Security to claim benefits for dead people. Doge views its work as a patriotic duty to ensure America's solvency.

The speakers discuss mules delivering mail to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and whether this system should be modernized. They then discuss the postal service, stating that many people don't realize there's a law requiring the post office to have a balanced budget. Since 2007, the postal service has reportedly lost money almost every year. According to the speakers, additional regulations put in place around that time crippled the postal service and put them on a bad path. They believe the postal service is stuck in the past and losing money. While they appreciate postal employees going to the hardest parts of the country, they think the postal service can be modernized and become profitable.

Doge aims to cut the federal deficit by $1 trillion by reducing waste and fraud, targeting a 15% reduction in federal spending. Astonishingly, billions are wasted casually, like a billion-dollar online survey. The goal is to cut $4 billion daily, and Doge publishes findings on its website for transparency. The retirement process involves a mine with 400 million paper documents, a system from the 1950s, which Doge plans to digitize for efficiency. Social Security systems are outdated, costing $100 billion, with critical systems over 50 years old. 40% of Social Security phone calls are from fraudsters stealing benefits, which Doge aims to prevent, ensuring legitimate recipients receive more money. NIH has 27 centers with 700 IT systems that don't connect, each with its own CIO. The federal government has 4.6 million credit cards for 2.3 million employees. Treasury uses one bank account for all federal payments, lacking basic financial controls, leading to $500 billion in annual fraud. Small business loans have been given to those under 11 and over 120 years old due to disconnected systems.

The speaker was asked to help fix retirement in the government and discovered that all paper documents for the retirement process are housed in a mine in Pennsylvania. This mine contains 22,000 filing cabinets stacked 10 high, holding 400 million pieces of paper. The retirement process, largely unchanged since the 1950s, involves physical paperwork and can take many months. Currently, the government can only process about 8,000 retirements a month, with processing times taking six to nine months, and calculations are often incorrect. The goal is to digitize the process, creating an online system that takes only a few days. The speaker believes civil servants are subjected to outdated processes and aims to provide a modern, user-friendly experience. The overhaul is expected to be completed in the next couple of months.

Postmaster DeJoy, while I appreciate your efforts to improve the Postal Service, my concern remains the financial losses. The public wants government efficiency, and while privatization is often suggested, no private company is willing to handle universal mail delivery. However, there are opportunities for partnerships in mail sorting. Your reorganization plan aims to streamline operations, but we need to ensure it effectively reduces costs and improves performance. The Postal Service has significant unfunded mandates and obligations that impact finances. We need to explore legislative changes to help the Postal Service break even. Additionally, the Office of Inspector General is researching costly obligations, including retirement funds, and will provide insights on potential solutions. It's crucial to address postal rates and staffing to enhance efficiency moving forward.

Doge aims to cut the deficit by $1 trillion by reducing waste and fraud, targeting a 15% spending reduction without affecting critical services. Astonishingly, billions are wasted routinely, like a billion-dollar charge for a simple online survey. The goal is to cut $4 billion daily, and Doge publishes findings on doge.gov for transparency. A key project involves digitizing the government retirement process, currently a paper-based system housed in a mine with 400 million documents, aiming to reduce processing time from months to days. Social Security systems are outdated, costing $100 billion, with critical systems over 50 years old. 40% of Social Security phone calls are from fraudsters stealing benefits. Doge aims to protect legitimate recipients and ensure website stability. HHS has opportunities to improve biomedical research by directing more grant money to scientists and consolidating IT systems. Treasury is fixing financial operations, addressing $500 billion in annual fraud and hundreds of billions in improper payments. Previously, Treasury couldn't pass an audit due to a lack of payment verification. The federal government has 4.6 million credit cards for 2.3 million employees. Duplicative functions and overstaffing exist across agencies. Small business loans have been given to those under 11 or over 120 years old. Fraudsters exploit the fact that computer systems don't communicate with each other.

Speaker 0 visited a mine used for storing physical media, specifically filing cabinets dating back to the 1960s, containing retirement paperwork. The speaker questions why paper is still used in 2025, showing an example of a retiree's case folder, which is compiled by hand and moved through the mine. Speaker 1 adds that the retirement process can take over six months due to the manual compilation and storage of paper documents, with calculations also done by hand. Speaker 0 states that the paperwork is extensive and difficult to process. They are implementing modern software to bring the retirement process online, and currently have 25 retirees going through an entirely online retirement process for the first time.

Our government needs new incentives for bureaucracy to adapt and improve since they can't fail like individuals can. The technology revolution has changed private organizations, but our government is lagging behind. Our financial systems are outdated, unable to track trillions of dollars in transactions, and information sharing is hindered by incompatible technological systems.

The speakers discuss the outdated infrastructure in America, which hasn't been updated in 30-40 years. One speaker claims the last administration did nothing to address it. The other speaker says these problems have built up over a long time, and they launched a contract to modernize the infrastructure by transforming the copper wire system to fiber. This speaker says that when leaving office, they handed over the keys for the new administration to take it to the next level. There were technology and workforce issues. The number of air traffic controllers had been declining for decades, but they finally got it to go up. They handed over a growing air traffic control workforce to the new administration.

We're streamlining the federal bureaucracy, aiming to reduce the workforce. We found a surprising bottleneck: the retirement process. Currently, the maximum number of retirements per month is capped at 10,000 due to a completely manual, paper-based system. The paperwork is stored in a 1950s-era limestone mine, and the speed of the mine shaft elevator limits processing. This antiquated system employs thousands of people whose efforts could be far better utilized elsewhere. The situation is absurd; we need to modernize this process immediately. Imagine the increased efficiency and contribution to the country's goods and services if these employees were redeployed.

Our financial systems are outdated, hindering our progress. It is estimated that $2.3 trillion in transactions cannot be tracked. Additionally, we face challenges in sharing information within this building due to incompatible and inaccessible technological systems.

Doge aims to cut the federal deficit by $1 trillion by reducing waste and fraud, targeting a 15% reduction in federal spending. Astonishingly, billions are wasted routinely, such as a billion-dollar charge for a simple online survey. Doge aims to cut $4 billion daily and publishes findings on doge.gov for transparency. The team found a mine in Pennsylvania housing 400 million paper retirement documents, a process dating back to the 1950s. The goal is to digitize it for faster processing. Government IT costs $100 billion, maintaining systems over 50 years old. Social Security faces fraud, with 40% of calls being from fraudsters trying to steal benefits. Doge aims to protect legitimate recipients and ensure the website stays online. There are 15-20 million potentially fraudulent Social Security numbers. NIH has 27 centers with 700 IT systems that don't connect. The Treasury uses one main bank account for all outgoing payments, lacking proper oversight. There are 4.6 million government credit cards for 2.3 million employees. Small business loans were given to those under 11 and over 120 years old. Fraudsters exploit system gaps, like claiming benefits for dead people. Doge views its work as a patriotic duty to ensure America's solvency.

Governments need to find incentives for bureaucracy to adapt and improve, unlike individuals or businesses that can fail and die. The technology revolution has transformed organizations in the private sector, but not the government. Our financial systems are outdated, with an estimated $2.3 trillion in untrackable transactions. Additionally, information cannot be shared within this building due to incompatible and inaccessible technological systems.

The post office operates differently from other government sectors, functioning like a private business. Despite a significant decline in first-class mail volume, employment has not decreased; in fact, there are 20,000 fewer employees than before. The focus has been on reducing costs, yet the number of government employees has increased, leading to higher labor costs, which account for 80% of expenses. Efforts to reform have not effectively addressed these costs, and the debt has risen significantly. While some cost savings have been achieved, the overall financial situation remains dire, highlighting the challenges of operating within government constraints. The need for a more efficient approach is evident, as the current model is not sustainable.

We're exploring ways to improve the Postal Service, which has been losing significant amounts of money. One idea involves a merger, possibly with the Commerce Department, to enhance its efficiency. While it would remain the Postal Service, the aim is to make it function much better than it has in the past. Alternatively, we might leverage talented individuals from other departments to help reduce the financial losses. The goal is to find a solution that preserves the Postal Service's core functions while significantly improving its financial performance, whether through a merger or by utilizing existing expertise.