Federal Agencies Tout Tech in President Trump’s First 100 Days

Federal agencies are highlighting technology impacts within President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office.

The administration has released several new directives to make government more efficient, including boosting emerging tech, streamlining federal acquisition and reforming the workforce.

As one of his first acts in office, Trump established the Department of Government Efficiency, bringing with it major workforce reforms and guidance for agencies to leverage tech to improve the way government works.

His new path forward for AI removes regulatory barriers to innovation. He has also signed new guidance streamlining federal acquisition to bring emerging tech in the door to stay competitive.

Here’s how agencies are approaching tech to align with these plans.

Defense Department

Several executive orders call for modernizing the U.S. military, enhancing its technological edge and adapting to emerging threats. The White House’s Jan. 27 order called for an Iron Dome-style missile defense system called “The Iron Dome for America.” The orders call for the development and deployment of advanced technologies, including space-based sensors and interceptors, to enhance detection and interception capabilities.

Trump also brought forward executive orders promoting AI development throughout government, including at DOD. Maj. Gen. Farrell Sullivan, director of the Marine Corps’ Capabilities Development Directorate and Department of Combat Development and Integration, said in April that there is a “sense of urgency” around AI and autonomous systems to “give them more power.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth came into the job promising acquisition reform, which aligns with movements across government more broadly. The administration has initiated significant changes to the Federal Acquisition Regulation, aiming to remove outdated processes and reduce bureaucracy, and the Pentagon has empowered officials to expand use of other transaction authority (OTA) agreements. In doing so, contracting officers are now empowered with broader discretionary authority to accelerate procurement cycles and foster innovation in defense technology.

The White House’s efficiency push within the DOD manifested in a February statement on eliminating waste and reinvesting funds into core defense mission areas. Hegseth emphasized leveraging advanced technology, cutting non-essential programs and reviewing programs throughout DOD. The Department of the Navy, for example, is undergoing a comprehensive review of software. Officials told GovCIO Media & Research the review aligns with multi-year optimization efforts, as outlined in CIO Jane Rathbun’s Information Superiority Vision 2.0 strategy.

In March, Hegseth unveiled the department’s software acquisition pathway memo titled “Directing Modern Software Acquisition to Maximize Lethality.” The plan emphasizes speed and agility in delivery by focusing on agile development practices that integrate continuous warfighter feedback. “The strategy really sets the path right for technology and process transformation,” DOD CIO for Information Enterprise, Cloud and Software Modernization Directorate, Software Modernization Lead Ana Kreiensieck told GovCIO Media & Research.

The White House also issued an order in April aimed to strengthen the defense industrial base. This streamlines procurement, encourages domestic production and ensures “policy based on speed, flexibility, and execution,” according to a White House fact sheet.

Department of Health and Human Services

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is restructuring the agency as part of the White House’s priorities to cut spending and streamline operations. This includes consolidating the agency’s 41 CIOs and disparate IT departments.

“We aren’t just reducing bureaucratic sprawl. We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic,” HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy said in the announcement. “This department will do more — a lot more — at a lower cost to the taxpayer.”

The plan will consolidate 28 divisions into 15 new ones, including a new Administration for a Healthy America (AHA).

In early March, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) said it would start centralizing peer review of all applications for grants and cooperative agreements within the agency’s Center for Scientific Review (CSR). The decision is expected to improve the efficiency and integrity of the process by eliminating duplicative efforts across the agency.

Individual agencies have also announced plans to increase their use of AI applications moving forward.

Public Health Response

Under President’s Trump Executive Order to implement the DOGE Workforce Optimization Initiative, the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) is eliminating more than 2,000 jobs, which included placing the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) under the CDC in late March. The move is intended to create a collaborative effort between the agencies to emphasize public health threat preparation and enhancing overall response efforts.

Data sharing is also a top priority, especially when it comes to pandemic preparedness. Earlier this year the agency played an essential role in keeping track of bird flu cases, and it has also made strides with its Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasure Enterprise (PHEMCE) program promoting collaborative efforts across government.

AI in Focus Across Health Care

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) saw some impacts to HHS’ broader consolidations. According to an HHS factsheet, its workforce decreased by roughly 3,500 full-time employees. Its Office of Digital Transformation was also eliminated. Former CIO Vid Desai reflected on the challenging effort to increase government efficiency.

“[The Department of Government Efficiency’s] ambitious vision for modernizing HHS IT reflects a drive for efficiency through the use of modern, highly centralized platforms,” Desai wrote on LinkedIn. “Designing IT systems to manage the HHS complexity requires modernizing numerous business processes, regulations and governance first.”

In addition to the consolidation, the FDA announced “an aggressive timeline” to scale use of artificial intelligence (AI) internally across all FDA centers by June 30, according to a press release. The announcement comes after FDA scientific reviewers successfully used a new generative AI pilot.

The tools allow FDA scientists and subject-matter experts to spend less time on tedious, repetitive tasks that often slow down the review process.

“This is a game-changer technology that has enabled me to perform scientific review tasks in minutes that used to take three days,” said Jinzhong Liu, deputy director of the Office of Drug Evaluation Sciences in FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) in a press release.

Both FDA and NIH launched various initiatives to replace animal testing with human-related methods including AI.

At FDA, this means using more AI in certain drug and therapy developments to improve drug safety and accelerate the evaluation process, while lowering R&D costs and drug prices.

“By leveraging AI-based computational modeling, human organ model-based lab testing and real-world human data, we can get safer treatments to patients faster and more reliably, while also reducing R&D costs and drug prices. It is a win-win for public health and ethics,” said FDA Commissioner Martin A. Makary in a press release.

At NIH, using more advanced non-animal research models will support researchers answering difficult biomedical research questions. NIH will employ technologies like computational models that can simulate complex biological human systems, disease pathways and drug interactions. The agency will also use real-world data to aid scientists who study health outcomes in humans at community and population levels.

Department of Veterans Affairs

The agency has seen massive changes including a new return-to-work policy and resumption of its EHR modernization program rollout in 2026.

The EHR program, which has been in an evaluatory “reset” phase since 2023 following accuracy, enterprise standardization and reliability of data issues, is slowly building momentum again in anticipation of the rollout to resume in 2026.

The White House has dubbed the EHR program a “top priority effort” and earmarked a funding increase of nearly $2.2 billion in the fiscal year 2026 proposed budget to accelerate the rollout of the program next year.

VA had said it would begin the rollout at four sites in Ann Arbor, Battle Creek, Detroit and Saginaw, Michigan in mid-2026 followed by nine additional sites spread between Ohio, Indiana and Alaska.

“We need to deploy the system, but we need to continue to optimize the system to meet the needs. Technology continues to mature,” Dr. Neil Evans, acting executive program director of the Electronic Health Record Modernization Integration Office at VA, told GovCIO Media & Research. “What we can accomplish using health information technologies is going to continue to improve as new capabilities, artificial intelligence and others, are introduced.”

Rightsizing the VA Workforce

The other major initiative at the VA in President Trump’s first 100 days has been part of a larger effort across government to downsize the personnel in the federal bureaucracy.

VA has worked with officials in DOGE to reduce the workforce by up to 15%, or roughly 80,000 jobs.

Secretary Doug Collins has contended that the 15% reduction is a “goal” rather than a firm directive and that current reductions have only been in unnecessary positions like “interior designers and DEI officers.”

“My only criteria that I have looking forward in this is making sure that we’re taking care of the veterans first,” Collins told the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee in his first Congressional hearing since being sworn in. “If that means we reshape the workforce, we do that. A goal is whatever a goal is but at the end of the day the metric is, are taking care of veterans.”

So far this year, the VA fired over 1,000 employees considered non-essential in February 2025, followed by an additional 1,400 employees the same month. Collins claimed in press releases that the firings would save the department more than $181 million a year and allow the agency to “put these resources to work helping veterans, their families, caregivers and survivors.”

Department of Homeland Security

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and subagencies are embracing DOGE efforts to eliminate government fraud, waste and abuse, according to a DHS press release.

Secretary Kristi Noem recently signed an agreement with Colombia to increase biometric data sharing to prevent illegal border crossings. Biometric data sharing has already led to over 1,700 deportations and 1,000 arrests, according to a DHS press release.

CISA looks to AI, Consolidation

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is leveraging AI applications to enhance efficiency, CISA CIO Bob Costello told GovCIO Media & Research in a statement. The most notable use case is the CISA-developed ChatGPT-like chatbot.

CISAChat is a generative AI tool designed to help with administrative tasks. Costello said his team is experimenting with integrating CISA data with other federal agency data to improve disaster response operations. The chatbot also works with Microsoft’s M365 Copilot to increase efficiency. He added that CISA recently added M365 copilot to its technology roster.

Both M365 Copilot and CISAChat have undergone agency privacy and security reviews and have been approved through CISA’s authorization to operate (ATO) processes. Costello said the two applications enhance productivity and streamline workflows across applications.

“CISA staff can now generate content, summarize documents, analyze data, and manage schedules more efficiently, all while adhering to agency security protocols,” said Costello.

CISA identified an opportunity to streamline IT support across the enterprise. CISA integrated two previously separate entities: a call center providing general IT support within CISA, and a specialized support center for unique applications.

The two now work together as a single Technical Operations Center (TOC). Costello said each team brought best practices and now have a more holistic approach. CISA also consolidated health and security monitoring tools, allowing for near real-time monitoring of CISA’s IT equipment.

“Staff are reporting changes, outages and incidents to leadership through a single process, providing situational awareness to CISA leadership,” Costello said.

Costello said CISA is focused on modernizing several legacy web applications with a secure cloud environment and a more centralized agency identity management solution. CISA also plans to focus on its zero-trust implementation plan and moving toward more FedRAMP authorized tools wherever possible.

USCIS Screening, Fraud Detection and Database Overhaul

Heeding to President Trump’s executive orders, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has taken steps to monitor social media for antisemitic comments. Immigrants who are responsible for online content that harasses Jewish individuals could potentially be denied immigration requests.

Under these guidelines, which took effect April 9, USCIS can reject immigration benefits to those who are seen on social media endorsing, promoting, or supporting antisemitic terrorism and antisemitic terrorist organizations. These recommendations will impact immigrants who are seeking permanent resident status, foreign students and those affiliated with educational institutions linked to antisemitic activity.

The agency has worked to improve national security by addressing immigration vulnerabilities and enhancing techniques to better detect fraud, USCIS spokesman Matthew Tragesser told GovCIO Media & Research.

“These efforts ensure that those seeking immigration benefits to live and work in the United States do not threaten public safety, undermine national security or promote harmful anti-American ideologies,” said Tragesser.

On April 1 USCIS along with DHS and DOGE initiated an overhaul of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database to ensure a single, reliable source for verifying non-citizen status across the nation.

According to USCIS, this optimization will help stop the exploitation of taxpayer-funded public benefits and illegal voting by immigrants. This process will also terminate transaction fees for participating state, local, territorial and tribal government users as well as enhance efficiency of mass immigrant status checks.

TSA Fully Enforces REAL ID

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is fully enforcing the requirement for REAL ID for those entering federal buildings and facilities or flying domestically. The enforcement is meant to increase national security and offer a set of standards for identity management according to TSA. As states begin meeting REAL ID requirements, TSA said it will reduce the amount of paperwork citizens will need to verify their identity.

“TSA will implement REAL ID effectively and efficiently, continuing to ensure the safety and security of passengers while also working to minimize operational disruptions at airports,” said Adam Stahl, TSA’s senior official performing the duties of the administrator, in a press release.

The use of REAL ID comes from the REAL ID Modernization Act, which laid the groundwork for REAL ID-compliant mobile/digital driver’s licenses to those who have a valid REAL ID compliant physical DL/ID.

Coast Guard Eliminates Outdated IT Program

The U.S. Coast Guard eliminated the Logistics Information Management System (CG-LIMS), which will save approximately $32.7 million. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a press release that the program’s removal is “another win for government efficiency” at DHS.

“$32 million in taxpayer savings thanks to the Coast Guard eliminating an ineffective IT program. I’m proud of the men and women of the Coast Guard, who continue to deliver on the President’s agenda and deliver efficiency while securing our borders and maritime approaches,” said Noem in the release.

The program’s removal comes as the Coast Guard and other armed services look to replace and modernize legacy systems. All CG-LIMS programs ended on May 1, and the savings and personnel will be reassigned to emergent agency needs and fill critical personnel shortages. Rear Adm. Mike Campbell, the Coast Guard’s director of acquisition programs and program executive officer, said in a press release that the efforts of CG-LIMS will continue under Force Design 2028 (FD 2028).

“The Coast Guard upholds a longstanding tradition of meticulous stewardship, driven by our talented, innovative and resourceful workforce,” said Campbell. “Through Force Design 2028, we are renewing our efforts to maximize efficiencies, identify cost savings and maximize the return on America’s investment in the Coast Guard.”

The plan is an accelerated effort to create a blueprint digital transformation for the Coast Guard to ensure the service remains operationally ready. It will focus on four areas: people, organization, contracting and acquisition, and technology.