Congress isn't powerless, it's powerful. Here's what a No Kings Appropriation Bill would look like, from @ddayen.bsky.social @prospect.org

@Erie.bsky.social accepting the EFF Award: “Speaking up is hard and it's scary. But it will only get harder and scarier from here. The best time to do it was yesterday. The second-best time is today. These are not choices we will always have.”

BIG WIN: A federal court restricts the IRS from continuing to share massive amounts of taxpayer data with ICE. This is a victory for taxpayers’ privacy.

The resignation letter that the government does not want you to see

Whistleblower reports, letters of dissent, appeals, refusals, resignations—this week saw many civil servants taking personal risks to honor their oath and serve the public interest the best they can. We recognize your courage. 🇺🇸

This story has it all: aquaculture, Black Flag, Bernie Sanders, Star Trek as policy, John Hodgman, male tears, and a candidate citing Luthen’s monologue from Andor. Meet Graham Platner, the Maine oysterman trying to crack the senate. @grahamformaine.bsky.social newrepublic.com/article/1996...

Yellen not at all pulling her punches in this op-ed for the FT www.ft.com/content/d2ea...

Hilarious because Airbnb has a net promoter score of 38!, and Direct File, built by US Digital Service which DOGE destroyed, has a net promoter score of 80+.

Gabriel Zucker and I have some advice for state leaders wondering what comes next after Direct File. Rather than copying DF itself, we should learn from *how* the IRS built with taxpayers and created an experience that only the IRS could deliver. (1/3) economicsecurityproject.org/news/states-...

🦊 I wrote about the administration’s “national design studio,” and how its shoddy construction isn’t a mistake. It’s a clear signal of priorities, and ones we need to actively, urgently rebuke. ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/a-noti...

Full resignation letter from Demetre C. Daskalakis, a CDC leader, does not hold back. "The recent shooting at CDC is not why I am resigning. My grandfather, who I am named after, stood up to fascist forces in Greece and lost his life doing so. I am resigning to make him and his legacy proud."

If I exfiltrated a copy of the numident to a random server I would be in jail right now

Americans should know the name Dave Lebryk. He served in our Treasury, through decades of Republican & Democratic administrations, ethically & competently managing our payments system. In January, he was forced out—when he blocked Elon Musk's team from illegal, secret access to his systems.

New from me today: What tax do billionaires pay? The corporate tax, which is a crucial component of the US revenue system at the very top of the income distribution, according to a new study. www.wsj.com/personal-fin...

Great piece in @fedscoop.bsky.social by @erie.bsky.social “… design is meaningless without trust. […] Americans will not want to use even the most elegant services if they don’t trust the government to protect their data.” fedscoop.com/america-by-d...

“You have to create ways for people to participate even if they don’t believe the future is possible.” - Victor Udoewa #civicspark

This is legitimately challenging. www.sporcle.com/games/FredTh...

"Trump Is Replacing Billy Long as I.R.S. Commissioner" says the NYT. That would mean **SIX** IRS commissioners since January. I'll have a new report up on leadership changes at IRS next week, but here's the summary as of May. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/what...

While Direct File accomplished a lot of things, it didn't change the institutions it touched. Yes, we proved excellent digital experiences are possible. Yes, we achieved satisfaction rates higher than Netflix. But we also learned that brilliant products alone don't change institutions.

Drowned out by the furor over his Direct File comments, the IRS Commissioner also warned at the same event that he’s already behind schedule and expects a late start to filing season next year. That means delays in getting refunds out the door. www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2025/ju...

Drowned out by the furor over his Direct File comments, the IRS Commissioner also warned at the same event that he’s already behind schedule and expects a late start to filing season next year. That means delays in getting refunds out the door. www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2025/ju...

This is true of government software, too. It is not a coincidence that the beloved Direct File was largely built by federal FTEs.

It has been the honor of my life to serve as Commissioner of BLS alongside the many dedicated civil servants tasked with measuring a vast and dynamic economy. It is vital and important work and I thank them for their service to this nation.

Re: Trump/BLS... Firing officials for reporting accurate data unflattering to the regime is straight out of the authoritarian playbook. Last year I wrote about this and other likely economic consequences of further democratic erosion: www.brookings.edu/articles/dem...

Trump is planning on firing the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Politicizing agencies that collect employment and economic data is exactly what the Soviets did to conceal an economy that wasn’t working. And it looks Trump is headed in this direction.

Seeing Kamala Harris openly say that the system is broken was so powerful. Just having someone in her position say it so candidly without qualification was beyond powerful.

I wrote a post about playing drums, building muscle memory, and how that relates to centering accessibility in every product decision as something we do instinctively. jaredcunha.com/blog/buildin...

An independent civil service is so important for so many reasons. One overlooked one is that it offers economic opportunities to people who would not otherwise get them from the private sector. bethesdamagazine.com/2025/07/29/d...

Did Republicans ever explain why it was Woke for the IRS to have a tax filing program?

If you’ve wondered how Direct File finally happened after two decades at an impasse, I wrote about three reasons why I think it finally broke through: chrisgiven.com/2025/07/the-...

This is so far over the line I don't even know where to begin. Trying to get students -- your own students -- expelled or deported because of political activism? Jesus, I won't even punch down at random college students on *social media*

With Tom Lehrer's passing, I suppose this is a moment to share the story of the prank he played on the National Security Agency, and how it went undiscovered for nearly 60 years.

How great was Tom Lehrer? In 2020, he moved his entire catalog into the public domain because he felt he'd made more than enough money off of it. Enjoy every Tom Lehrer album: tomlehrersongs.com

Now if only we could ask everyone to chip in. Maybe, I don’t know, different amounts depending on your ability to pay? I know some folks who could build a tool to make it really easy. bsky.app/profile/ones...

I’m excited to share that 2 months after resigning from the IRS after DOGE killed Direct File, and 14 months after the IRS hired me to continue leading the team designing and building Direct File, the IRS has determined that I am suitable for the role I no longer hold. #efficiency

Kathy Pham and I spoke with @donmoyn.bsky.social about civic tech & reflections on our oral history of USDS. Thank you to Don for the opportunity, and to Kathy for being such a wonderful partner on all of this work ❤️🙏🏼 And the biggest thanks to our colleagues who trusted us with their stories ❤️

Via @jeffstein.bsky.social @washingtonpost.com anti-tax interests want the Trump IRS to give an unlawful tax cut to wealthy people by executive fiat. Just the tip of one of two big icebergs of tax cuts for special interests coming for the tax system. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Q: How did the Direct File team build an accurate, easy-to-use filing app given the complexity of the tax code? A: Building a source of truth with a bird’s-eye view Learn how it was done via the All Screens page. Bonus: it’s also included in the open source repo! jaredcunha.com/blog/explori...

The IRS was assigned the code name “Sprite” during the LA deployment, alongside other soda names for the other on-the-ground LE agencies (and the Marines). Raises questions about the role IRS CI played, and of course, evokes the false claims about the IRA. www.kenklippenstein.com/p/exclusive-...

This is the beauty of side projects. You get to throw out all the good advice and give into your worst instincts. It’s programmer rumspringa

The "big, beautiful bill," now headed to Trump's desk for signature, directs the Treasury to study how it will replace Direct File, a free online tax filing service set up last year, with a public-private partnership. www.nextgov.com/digital-gove...

More reflections on the "civil tech" moment & what comes next. blog.ronbronson.com/on-public-me...

Direct File is the kind of forthright, straightforward, unapologetic make-government-work-for-you kitchen table pitch that Dems who are looking for national analogues to Mamdani's winning platform should be grasping with both hands.

New, from me: how might automation fail in public services? The Australian Robodebt case provides a compelling set of insights that governments lurching toward AI or algorithms need to pay attention to. 🧵 substack.com/home/post/p-...

Reminder that none of this would've been possible if not for the neocons manipulating Trump's hatred of Obama to kill the JCPOA. From there, safeguards became unconstrained enrichment and all the scary things they're trotting out became possible. Be careful buying what these guys are still selling.

Taps the sign

The NYT was cited in the Supreme Court ruling used to strip trans people of healthcare. This is EXACTLY WHY the “just asking questions” crowd of centrist edgelord journalists are dangerous. They launder transphobia through faux neutral “debate” and act like it’s intellectual curiosity

👀 Hot off the press: A scathing open letter co-authored by all 17 former ACIP members. It's a frank look at ACIP history and the hard truths America will grapple with in the upcoming months. Turns out the former ACIP members have more spine than CDC leadership 🙄 jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

one of my hugest, pettest pet peeves (& it comes up constantly in civic tech) is "transform" without INTO WHAT?

FAA nominee less qualified than Nathan Fielder