18F was the backbone of government software development, a vital resource unfairly terminated overnight with zero warning. Formed in March of 2014, 18F was primarily in charge of developing digital products and services that would be used by numerous agencies within the U. S. Government to improve efficiency and lower technical costs. At midnight on March 1, 2025, all staff were locked out of their work computers and placed on immediate administrative leave with no prior warning. 

Although many people have no idea what 18F was or what they did, most people have likely interacted with a service created by 18F in some way. According to 18F’s website, “18F was a digital services consulting group within the federal government. We helped other government agencies fix technology problems and save money by making smarter technology investments.” One of 18F’s leading principles was that they create in the open, developing software with as much transparency as possible, reassuring Americans that their tax dollars were going somewhere meaningful. 

At the time of 18F’s termination, they were actively working on numerous projects, including many that we as people living in the U.S. use every day, whether we know it or not. For example, the National Weather Service (NWS) has a website running on extremely outdated technology, and 18F took on the role of modernizing the way people access the data on NWS’s website. In the current website implementation, it can be hard to navigate and find what is being looked for, pushing users to go to other ad-ridden websites such as weather.com. Additionally, as many high school and college students have learned, it can be difficult to find time to do taxes, but 18F had a solution. They developed a service for the IRS called Direct File, which aided taxpayers in filing their tax returns directly with the IRS; no matter the complexity, return data could easily be typed into the IRS’s own website. Direct File would not only do federal taxes, but in eligible states it could assist in filing state taxes as well. According to 18f.org, in the first year Direct File was tested, it is estimated that the taxpayers who used Direct File saved a combined $5.6 million, signaling the cost savings possible through 18F’s work. Additionally, 18F was working with the Council on Environmental Quality to help improve the process of getting permits to help federal agencies determine what level of impact they will have on the environment. This was a goal explicitly stated by the second Trump administration, the same administration that later terminated 18F.

There are many more projects 18F was working on when they were shut down, but that’s not the main issue. Since its founding, 18F has been all about efficiency and improving the use of Government resources. In fact, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) mentioned numerous times how vital 18F was in promoting Government efficiency. However, they were shut down by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and according to 18f.org, 18F was told, “This decision was made with explicit direction from the top levels of leadership within both the Administration and GSA.” Slightly over a year after 18F was originally terminated, it is apparent that they were grounded in efficiency and improvement, yet terminated by an agency trying to improve government efficiency. The National Weather Service is a reliable and reputable agency that many do not use solely because it’s convoluted, and IRS Direct File could be saving millions of dollars for U.S. Taxpayers. 18F’s disbanding affects residents of the U.S. today through the numerous tools and opportunities that were forfeited all because of a search for efficiency; a search that failed to identify the right subjects.