Elon Musk (right) and Google CEO Sundar Pichai at the inauguration of President Donald Trump.Kevin Lamarque/Pool/AP
It’s a rather wonky position in the US government: chief information officer. Most federal agencies and departments have one. The role of the CIO, according to federal law, is to promote the effective, efficient, and secure use of information technology to accomplish the agency’s mission. Basically, make the IT work. It’s a technical position outside the realm of politics and policy and has been reserved for federal career appointees who are supposed to be impartial.
But the Office of Personnel Management, now being overseen by Elon Musk and his minions, just issued a memo, which was obtained by Mother Jones, to all heads and acting heads of federal agencies asking them to request a change in the status of CIOs from “senior executive service” and “career reserved” to “general.” This means Musk could move to take over the IT of the entire federal government by placing cronies and ideologues into these key posts.
As FedScoop notes, this “move seems to be focused on making it easier for the government to install outsiders—potentially from the tech industry or those associated with Elon Musk—into the CIO role, similar to the ongoing and highly controversial activities led by the Department of Government Efficiency.”
In all the flurry of news about Musk’s effort to seize control of the federal government and depopulate its workforce, this memo hasn’t received much attention yet. But if OPM succeeds in reclassifying the status of CIOs, Musk—or someone else—could gain control of the lifeblood of any modern organization: its IT.
Here’s the memo:
