Timeline

2009 + 2010

The first two years of the Obama Administration featured new talent and approaches, including several policy actions related to open government and open data. New Media teams were created, bringing innovations from the campaign into government agencies. This experience provided a key insight: the government often thought of websites solely as communication tools, rather than key touchpoints for delivering on their mission. In reality, websites were a critical touchpoint for delivering services and benefits.

The White House also developed new ways to attract and retain talent, creating pathways that USDS would later build on. Much of this work was rooted in the new Office of the Chief Technology Officer (CTO). These first two years provided a foundation for what followed, creating an environment in which an idea like the U.S. Digital Service could later take root. 

• January 21, 2009: Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government published. One of the first actions of the new administration was a Presidential Memorandum that aimed to establish “… a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration.” This foundational policy ushered in an era of using technology to increase collaboration between the private and public sectors, and led to the Open Government Directive later in the year.

• Ongoing: New Media teams initiated across federal agencies. New Media teams were created, bringing innovations from the campaign into government agencies. Some were placed in Public Affairs, some in IT, and some in the Office of the Deputy Secretary. These different models yielded various outcomes, offering key lessons about how to create change within agencies.

• March 2009: First-ever U.S. Chief Information Officer appointed. Vivek Kundra was appointed as the first-ever Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO), with remit over policy and strategic planning of federal information technology investments, as well as responsibility for oversight of federal technology spending.

• April 2009: First-ever U.S. Chief Technology Officer appointed. The appointment of Aneesh Chopra fulfilled a campaign promise and created the Office of the CTO. This office, nested within the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), would lead much of the activity in the years that followed, including the founding of USDS. A major priority of the first CTO was open data and open government.

• July 2009: Federal Communications Commission began to experiment with innovative uses of technology, and novel approaches to public and private talent collaboration. Under the leadership of Julius Genachowski and Steve van Roekel (later the second U.S. CIO), the agency recruited top talent from industry and tested new approaches to public engagement, most notably in implementing the National Broadband Plan. This included people like Charles Worthington and Nick Sinai, who would later shape both the open data movement and USDS. It also included Haley Van Dyck, who had helped pioneer the use of new technology on the 2008 Obama campaign. At the FCC, she established the agency’s first New Media team, an experience that would deeply inform her later work at the White House and, ultimately, in founding USDS. She went on to guide USDS from initial concept to reality, serving as its first Deputy Administrator and continuing her role into the Trump Administration.

• May 2009: Data.gov launched. The website, created by the U.S. CIO, aimed to improve public access to high-value, machine-readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch. It was one of the first efforts to create an open data ecosystem, using federal data as the basis for connecting government agencies, researchers, businesses, and civil society. Communities of practice were later created around key topics, providing a way for researchers to request data and to coordinate work across federal agencies. By the end of 2010, most agencies had published data on Data.gov. By 2012, open data from Data.gov was regularly used by civil society organizations and businesses across the country.

• August 2009: Chief Technology Officer at Department of Health and Human Services appointed. As Health and Human Services (HHS) CTO, Todd Park built momentum around open data for healthcare and would later play a pivotal role in the creation of the Presidential Innovation Fellowship, the Healthcare.gov rescue effort, and the founding of USDS.

• September 9, 2009: Gov 2.0 Summit popularized the notion of “Government as a Platform.” The Gov 2.0 conference convened people working on technology in government at a dynamic time. At this point, much of the focus was around open government and open data, and several people who would later bring their talent to the government became engaged at this Gov 2.0 Summit. It was at this Summit that Jen Pahlka announced Code for America — a “one-year fellowship recruiting developers to work for city government.” Code for America would later serve as inspiration for the Presidential Innovation Fellowship, and Jen Pahlka would come to play a central role in the conceptualization and founding of USDS.

• December 2009: Open Government Directive published. Following the instruction of the Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government, the Director of the OMB issued an Open Government Directive, calling on executive departments and agencies to take specific actions to implement transparency, participation, and collaboration. The directive was informed by recommendations from the U.S. CTO, who solicited public comment through the White House Open Government Initiative.

• 2010: Health Data Initiative launched. The project released non-private health data from HHS vaults to the public and innovators. In addition to publishing new data sets, the initiative made existing data much easier for developers to use, rendering it machine readable, downloadable, and accessible via APIs. Resources remain accessible via HealthData.gov.

• August 2010: Blue Button launched. Blue Button was the first of a series of “MyData” initiatives granting consumers access to their personal data spanning health, energy, finance, and education. In 2018, HHS launched Blue Button 2.0 with the release of a new API.

• September 2010: Accountable Government Initiative launched. The project was an effort to cut waste and “modernize” government. It focused on outdated technologies and ways of working, wasteful spending, and obsolete and under-performing programs.

• December 9, 2010: U.S. CIO released a 25 point plan. The plan aimed to reform federal information technology management and “deliver more value to the American taxpayer” through agency actions like prioritizing the cloud, reducing data centers, and fixing or halting underperforming IT projects.

2011

The White House, including the Office of the Federal CIO (OFCIO) and OSTP, coupled with new hires and directives, stimulated activity across government agencies. This was also the year the CFPB was founded, which prototyped new approaches to hiring, design, and delivery that later served as a template for USDS.

Outside of Washington, D.C., Code for America hosted a U.K. delegation led by Cabinet Minister Francis Maude and Mike Bracken, Executive Director for Digital in the Cabinet Office. Despite their differing political affiliations, they had recently established the Government Digital Service (GDS) based on Martha Lane Fox’s strategic review of Directgov. GDS later provided inspiration for USDS.

• February 8, 2011: Federal Cloud Computing Strategy published. This plan pushed each agency to transition some services to the cloud within the year. It was one of the first unified, top-down actions encouraging federal agencies to transition into cloud computing.

• April 2011: Executive Order on Streamlining Service Delivery and Improving Customer Service released. This Executive Order spotlighted the experience of people engaging with the government, and prioritized measuring and improving that experience across agencies. Plans were published on the agencies’ new Open Government pages.

• June 2011: Executive Order on Delivering an Efficient, Effective, and Accountable Government released. This Executive Order focused on cutting waste and ensuring that the federal government serves the American people effectively and efficiently.

• July 2011: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau founded. The CFPB’s Tech and Innovation Team explored novel approaches to hiring, design, and delivery that later served as models for USDS. Among its initial employees were people who were later instrumental to the founding of USDS and 18F, including Erie Meyer and Deepa Kunapuli.

• August 2011: Second U.S. Chief Information Officer appointed. CIO Steve Van Roekel was instrumental in creating space for new ideas, and helped build support for and lay the foundation for USDS. Working with White House campus facilities, he would later find the physical home for USDS in a historic townhome on Jackson Place, right outside the White House gated complex. This townhome later served as the cultural heart of the team, as a space described by Steve as “inside the wall but outside the wall.”

• Fall 2011: U.K. delegation visited Code for America. Cabinet Minister Francis Maude and Mike Bracken paid a visit to the year-old Code for America. Mike would invite Jen Pahlka to visit the new GDS team the following year, providing inspiration that she in turn later brought to the White House.

2012 

Several foundational pieces of the U.S. Digital Service clicked into place in 2012. 

The Digital Government Strategy generated momentum for work with digital technology across the Executive Branch. Products built on government data proved the value of openness, machine-readable formats, and APIs. This work empowered civil servants who were eager to explore new approaches, and expanded the network of government employees with a shared belief that design and technology could help the government better serve the public. 

Todd Park became the second U.S. Chief Technology Officer (CTO), bringing with him a passion for talent and capacity-building. The Office of the CTO launched the Presidential Innovation Fellows (PIF) program, layering novel skill sets into government. During this time, Todd also began recruiting Jen Pahlka to scale the PIF program. Having just visited the GDS in the U.K., Jen was inspired by the possibility of building longer-term technical capacity within the U.S. government.

Throughout the fall of 2012, a small group met regularly to identify a plan for creating something like GDS in the U.S. government: What were the right mission and priorities? Where would it be housed? What kinds of skills and talent would be required? By the end of 2012, the concept that would lead to both USDS and 18F — at that time known as “Project X” — had garnered support. 

Across the Atlantic in London, the U.K. government was leading the way with a delivery unit of its own called the Government Digital Service (GDS). Just over a year old, GDS would serve as critical inspiration for the founding of USDS.

• January 2012: E-Gov office within the Office of Management and Budget focuses on government delivery of technology. Bringing lessons and a theory of change from the FCC and USAID, Haley Van Dyck’s mandate at the E-Gov office was improving the ability of the federal government to deliver technology. In the fall of 2012 she led the Project X effort to build a “delivery team” inside the government — an effort that would eventually become USDS.

• March 9, 2012: Second U.S. Chief Technology Officer appointed. After two and a half years as CTO at the Department of Health and Human Services, Todd Park became the second U.S. CTO at the White House and brought with him a passion for talent, capacity-building, and culture change. His team became ground zero for much of the activity around the founding of USDS.

• March 2012: Office for Personnel Management Innovation Lab launched. The OPM lab fostered greater creativity and innovation in government, helping the federal workforce apply Human-Centered Design methods to their work. It familiarized employees across agencies with human-centered approaches to the delivery of government services, and demonstrated a different way of working in government. 

• May 2012: “Building a 21st Century Digital Government” Directive (also known as the Digital Government Strategy) released. Building on several initiatives and Executive Orders from the first few years of the administration, this White House Directive created a Digital Government Strategy to deliver better digital services to the American people. This initiated a wave of work at various agencies and formed the roots of the 21st Century IDEA legislation that passed in 2018.

• August 2012: Presidential Innovation Fellows (PIF) program launched. The White House’s first round of PIFs included several people who would later play important roles in the foundation of USDS. They included Ryan Panchadsaram, who would play a vital part in the Healthcare.gov response and later become the White House Deputy CTO; Marina (Martin) Nitze, who would later become CTO of the VA and start the first agency-level USDS team; and Kara (DeFrias) Fitzpatrick, who facilitated early ideation sessions about the inception of USDS with White House leadership.

• Fall 2012: “Project X” planning began. A small group convened for bi-weekly meetings around the idea of building a technology delivery unit inside the government to improve the most critical citizen-facing services. They used the name “Project X” for the initiative as a placeholder name for what eventually became both USDS and 18F. The small team was led by Haley Van Dyck and included Macon Phillips, Andrew McMahon, Dan Tangerlini, Steve Van Roekel (U.S. CIO), and Todd Park (U.S. CTO).

• November 2012: The U.K. Government Digital Service (GDS) provided inspiration for USDS. Jen Pahlka toured the GDS headquarters. In the short time she was there, she received a call from then U.S. CTO Todd Park, inviting her to join his team to scale the Presidential Innovation Fellows program. Jen advocated for using this role to build an American version of the GDS.

• December 18, 2012: First draft of the “Concept of Operations” for Project X was created. Haley Van Dyck and Todd Park began working on the first draft of an approximately 15-page “Concept of Operations,” with later support from Jen Pahlka. Dan Tangerlini was eager to make the idea happen, and incubate it under his leadership at the GSA.

Early 2013

By early 2013, the concept for the U.S. Digital Service – at that time still known as Project X – was gaining traction. The buy-in and support from tech leaders in the Administration was strong, but obstacles and differing opinions remained in figuring out how to fund the team, where to house it, and how large its scope and mandate should be. 

Outside of the White House, agencies across the federal government were experimenting with new approaches for delivering services to the public. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) emerged as early hubs for modern approaches to designing, delivering, and procuring software. Early successes at these agencies would serve as critical models for USDS, leading to the VA and DHS launching two of the first USDS agency teams the following year.

• January 15, 2013: Project X workshop held. A small group of people gathered at the White House to think through the mission, priorities, and basic structure of Project X. The workshop built on the “Concept of Operations” document that had been created in December 2012, and aimed to generate consensus on a high-level mission, three pilot projects, and a rough structure.

• May 2013: Executive Order on Making Open and Machine Readable the New Default for Government Information released. The Executive Order made government information open and machine readable by default. It transformed how agencies and employees thought about and managed public information. It was accompanied by the Open Data Policy: Managing Information as an Asset (M-13-13), which established a framework for managing government information effectively.

• June 2013: A full-time team dedicated to creating USDS began. Jen Pahlka started at the White House, joining forces with Haley Van Dyck to bring the Project X concept to life. A few months later Casey Burns would detail from GSA to join them. This convergence created the first full-time team of people formally working on the effort, and they renamed the project “The United States Digital Service.” This small team collaborated with colleagues across the federal government throughout the year on the institutional processes required to establish the team.

• June 2013: The second class of Presidential Innovation Fellows began. Among the second round of PIFs were several people who would play key roles in the founding of USDS. They included Mollie Ruskin, who would pilot Human-Centered Design at the VA; and Charles Worthington, who would later become the CTO of the VA. Both were among the first few USDS employees.

• July 2013: Department of Veterans Affairs Chief Technology Officer appointed. Marina (Martin) Nitze came into government as a PIF in 2012 and was embedded in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), where she gained trust for her work on the Veterans disability claims backlog. From OSTP she took on the role of CTO at the VA, where she played a pivotal role in founding the first agency-level team of USDS.

• Summer 2013: Development of the President’s Management Agenda began. The PMA defined the administration’s key management priorities and initiatives, and USDS was a central part of the agenda.

• August 2013: USDS budget process began. The formulation of the President’s budget is a critical policy process that sets the President’s priorities across the government, and was the primary tool used to create buy-in and get approvals for the creation of USDS. An initial pitch called for the establishment of USDS as a new office in the Executive Office of the President, with an additional 25 staff.

Late 2013 

A dual crisis occurred on October 1, 2013: The government shut down and Healthcare.gov launched then crashed, threatening to derail the Affordable Care Act. This was a major inflection point in the genesis of the U.S. Digital Service, as the failure of Healthcare.gov — and the ensuing rescue — demonstrated the value of technologists in government.

The rescue of Healthcare.gov accelerated the idea of technologists in government, providing a valuable and viable operational model and theory of change. In a very real sense, fixing Healthcare.gov was USDS’s first project. Those responding to Healthcare.gov discovered that the technology was only one part of the problem — procurement, hiring, complex policies, and convoluted institutional incentives were at the root of the problem. Following the emergency, things could have gone back to business as usual, but leaders across the federal government recognized that problems like this would continue if no one took the time to understand, untangle, and address the underlying structural and organizational problems.

• October 1, 2013: First day of a 16-day government shutdown. The shutdown brought all government work, and any momentum for USDS, to a halt. While people were furloughed, the entire budget for USDS was cut, creating an opportunity to reconsider where it would be located: Could it be placed at the White House, specifically at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)?

• October 1, 2013: Healthcare.gov launched – and crashed. The initial failure of the Healthcare.gov website threatened the Affordable Care Act (a signature policy of the Obama Administration) and created an emergency at the White House. It was an all-hands-on-deck moment. The previous four years had brought new digital talent into government, and the following weeks and months tapped into that talent for the response. For the mission to rescue Healthcare.gov, Todd Park gathered as teammates people who were already in government, like Ryan Panchadsaram and Marina (Martin) Nitze, and others from outside of government who had critical skills and experience, including Matthew Weaver and Mikey Dickerson, who would later become the first USDS Administrator. Through the rescue effort they met several people who came to play a role in the creation of USDS, including Mina Hsiang (who would later serve as the third USDS Administrator). Additional teammates including Nathan Parker and David Nesting were recruited in subsequent waves.

• October 17, 2013: The government shutdown ended, coinciding with the Code for America Summit. After over 2 weeks, the government shutdown came to an end. This coincidentally occurred while Mike Bracken, Executive Director of the U.K.’s Government Digital Service (GDS), delivered the CfA Summit keynote about “redesigning government.” The talk was about what later became a mantra across digital service teams: “The strategy is delivery.”

• October 23, 2013: The U.K. Government Digital Service heightened awareness in American media. Mike Bracken, Executive Director of the U.K.’s Government Digital Service (GDS), conducted a media roadshow in Washington, D.C. He initially wanted to meet deputy secretaries and build support for the “American GDS,” but with the budget zeroed out during the shutdown, those meetings were canceled. In lieu of those meetings, he conducted a press tour and journalist Ezra Klein wrote a cover story for Bloomberg on the HealthCare.gov tech failure. The gist: Turns out this is a solved problem: Just look at what they are doing in the U.K.

“The article got people talking again. If the UK could do it, maybe we could too. We could have a core competency in digital inside government.” – Jen Pahlka 

• November 2013: “Proposal for a 21st Century VA” written. Marina (Martin) Nitze, Mollie Ruskin, Ben Willman, Tom Black, and Emily Tavoulareas co-authored a vision for transforming how the VA served and engaged with veterans. The group sketched out what would later become a printed booklet that served as inspiration to new Veteran Affairs leadership, and created a foundation for what would later become the first agency-level team of USDS.

• December 2013: USDS is incorporated into the President’s FY15 budget request.  The funding request of $20M to create the US Digital Service was officially approved for inclusion in the President’s FY15 Budget, amounting to the first White House approval to get USDS off the ground.

Early 2014

Some members of the team working on the Healthcare.gov rescue returned to the White House. They brought with them an operational strategy that had succeeded, and intersected with the planning work underway at the White House to create a delivery team of technologists. Using the operational strategy from the Healthcare.gov rescue, the office of the U.S. Chief Technology Officer organized two sprints at the VA and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), diving into high-priority systems to diagnose issues and identify interventions. These sprints tested the Healthcare.gov rescue approach in different contexts, and became a tactical blueprint that later became the Discovery Sprint Guide. The first stretch of the year was also spent doing targeted recruiting for critical skills across engineering, product, design, procurement, policy, and talent.

• March 2014: Pilot funding for USDS secured. Due to the appropriations process with Congress, USDS’s inclusion in the President’s FY15 budget request meant those funds wouldn’t be appropriated until October of 2014. To get started in the meantime, the White House allocated $8m from the Information Technology Oversight and Reform Account (ITOR account) to get the USDS pilot off the ground.

• March 2014: 18F launched. 18F launched at the General Services Administration. 18F and USDS had shared priorities like service delivery and attracting top talent, and similar methods for execution. They differed in their structure and operations, which proved valuable over time. Structured as a cost-recoverable model, 18F employees were employees of the General Services Administration, and were paid by agencies that hired them for a specific purpose. USDS employees were employees of either the White House (USDS headquarters team) or a department where there was a USDS agency-level team. 18F and USDS would go on to collaborate on significant projects like the U.S. Web Design Standards. Since its inception, 18F completed more than 450 projects for dozens of agencies at the federal, state, and local levels.

• March 2014: First documented discovery sprint conducted on the Department of Veterans Affairs disability claims backlog. David Recordon led a discovery sprint to understand the roots of the disability claims backlog and how it might be addressed. The discovery sprint would become a common and valuable method for projects across USDS. Throughout the year, more discovery sprints were conducted on high-priority policies and programs.

• Spring – Summer 2014: Recruiting events held to identify and bring in top talent for short “tours” of service. Throughout the spring there were a series of recruiting events in preparation for the launch of USDS. Recruits were hired formally through the Schedule A hiring authority or as “intermittent consultants.” Through this hiring authority, USDS employees, like all government employees, were subject to background investigations and ethics reviews. Due to the volume of people coming from tech companies, many people had to resolve conflicts of interest.

• May 2014: Digital Services Playbook created by the Office of the Chief Technology Officer. Charles Worthington, Ryan Panchadsaram, and Mollie Ruskin created the Digital Services Playbook, with input from colleagues at the White House, Presidential Innovation Fellowship, industry, and the Healthcare.gov rescue team. The Digital Services Playbook would come to serve as an instruction manual for how to design and deliver modern software and digital services in government.

• June 2014: New U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer began. The Office of the CTO continued to empower the creation of USDS. Ryan Panchadsaram became a Deputy CTO and played a significant role in supporting discovery sprints, drafting memos, and recruiting.

• June 2014: USDS found a home. Working with White House campus facilities, Steve Van Roekel found office space for USDS in a historic townhome on Jackson Place, right outside of the White House gated complex. The historic building would come to serve as the cultural home of the organization, creating a home base that was open, cozy, and scrappy, and described by Steve as “inside the wall but outside the wall.”

• August 1, 2014: Roosevelt Room meeting convened initial recruits. The White House set up a targeted recruiting meeting with key individuals it wanted to hire. The President was supposed to pop in for five minutes and say “Hey, please come serve your country.” Instead, he stayed for 45 minutes and personally pitched attendees. Guests being recruited included Dana Chisnell, David Recordon, Mikey Dickerson, Ginny Hunt, Jennifer Anastafoff, Lisa Gelobter, Eric Hysen, and Nathan Parker. Existing government officials present included Erie Meyer, Jen Pahlka, Todd Park, Germaine Gabriel, Vivian Graubard, Beth Cobert, Charles Worthington, and Ryan Panchadsaram.

Launch & beyond

The team rapidly grew, and in many ways was in “start up” mode. As they focused on recruiting and building support across agencies, they created a home in Jackson Place that over the years served as the cultural heart of the team. Shortly after launch, the Department of Veterans Affairs approved the creation of the first agency-level team. By January 2015 the VA team had launched, followed by teams at the Department of Defense, Department of Education, the Department of Health & Human Services.

• August 11, 2014: USDS was formally launched. USDS launched with the USDS Playbook, TechFAR Handbook, and a handful of staff.

• September 2014: Third U.S. Chief Technology Officer appointed. Megan Smith became the third U.S. CTO, bringing with her a passion for building technology movements, empowering networks of people to connect and learn from each other, and identifying novel approaches that could be replicated or scaled elsewhere. 

• Fall 2014: USDS received approval to set up a team at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Marina (Martin) Nitze, Erie Meyer, and Emily Tavoulareas and others worked to recruit and set up the first agency-level team of the USDS.  

• December 16, 2014: USDS receives its first congressional appropriation. Congress passes the FY15 budget, with $20m allocated for USDS. 

• January 11, 2015: Digital Service at the VA launches with 7 people: Alex Gaynor, Jeff Maher, Ellen Ratajak, Emily Wright-Moore, Emily Tavoulareas, Matthew Weaver, and Craig Harrington. Marina (Martin) Nitze was the Chief Technology Officer

• January 20 2015: State of the Union Address delivered by President Obama. USDS launched its website and unveiled its first logo, led by founding designer Mollie Ruskin, to correspond with the president’s State of the Union. This led to a surge of interest and over 1,000 applications. The goal was 200 hires by the end of the administration. Kathy Pham, a founding product and engineering member, represented USDS as First Lady Michelle Obama’s Guest to the State of the Union.

• Throughout 2015: Discovery “Roadshow” with agency leaders. USDS spent nearly a year meeting with agency leaders, aiming to identify where they would have high-level support — something that the healthcare.gov rescue had demonstrated was critical to progress. The roadshow introduced USDS to leaders across government; started new relationships; and revealed the resources needed to support all 24 CFO Act agencies, including the realities of staffing that work. 

• September 2015: The US Web Design Standards launched. A joint project between 18F and USDS, the Web Design Standards quietly made a huge impact. It helped create a consistent look/feel across government websites, but also reduced the cost of visual web design — both in terms of time and money, because the design elements were all there and open source. The team was led by Mollie Ruskin (USDS) and Julia Elman (18F) and made up of designers and developers in both groups, including Maya Benari (18F), Carolyn Dew (18F), Victor Garcia (USDS), Angel Kittiyachavalit (USDS), Colin MacArthur (18F), and Marco Segreto (18F).

• [Ongoing] US Digital Service values. As the organization grew, the employees wanted to develop values that could transcend organizational and political transitions. They identified 6 core values: Hire and empower great people. Find the truth, tell the truth. Go where the work is. Design with people, not for them. Optimize for results, not optics. Create momentum.

In the years that followed…

The U.S. Digital Service continued its work across three administrations spanning Presidents Obama, Trump, and Biden. As of January 20, 2025 the U.S. Digital Service was reorganized and renamed to the U.S. DOGE Service.

During its first 10 years, the U.S. Digital Service worked across 31 federal agencies, and employed over 700 highly qualified people for term-limited appointments, to develop, modernize, and enhance the tools and systems that the American public relies on.

This timeline covers the origin story, and was created from nearly 50 interviews with people who helped shape the origin of USDS. Official documentation and information regarding the U.S. Digital Service can be found on the official USDS blog, and in annual reports to Congress: 2016, Summer 2017,  Fall 2017, 2024