The Department of Government Efficiency, a.k.a. DOGE, is the most prominent and transformative thing happening in the federal government right now — it’s tough to argue with that, no matter if you’re in the industrial base serving the government, working in the commercial sector or a government official yourself. According to GovSpend, the current administration canceled nearly 2,500 contracts between Jan. 20 and Feb. 25. Recent reports have highlighted the potential impacts DOGE’s cuts will have on contractors providing IT services to federal agencies, leaving some big players vulnerable.
But with new court rulings issued weekly and communication from the agency inconsistent, the actual short- and long-term effects for GovCon companies remain unclear. Which is why Potomac Officers Club, the capital region’s premier GovCon networking and media company, is hosting a vital DOGE panel discussion at its upcoming 2025 Digital Transformation Summit. The event will be an all-day exploration of technology modernization at the federal level and its centerpiece will be a panel that explores what contractors need to know about DOGE and how they can prepare for the future. Register now!
What Is DOGE?
For the uninitiated, DOGE is a central tenet of Donald J. Trump’s second presidential administration meant to root out unnecessary spending and waste, fraud and abuse in government administration and expenditures. The idea was first introduced in fall 2024 by Trump and Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, and was consecrated as an official plan once Trump was elected in November.
How USDS Became DOGE
Once Trump took office, rather than establish a new commission outright (early mentions of the department termed it as “government efficiency commission”), the president’s team identified the U.S. Digital Service, a second-term Obama creation for technology development, as ripe for a new usage. USDS, the former U.S. Digital Service’s acronym, now stands for U.S. DOGE Service, which includes both the Digital Service (which has not technically been dissolved, though some 65 people were let go) and the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization. The latter is the DOGE that is currently starring in headlines and is set to expire on July 4, 2026 — America’s 250th birthday.
Who Are the DOGE Experts?
For the 2025 Digital Transformation Summit panel, Potomac Officers Club has assembled an extremely knowledgeable lineup of guest speakers who are uniquely qualified to provide insights on the department’s latest efforts and policies regarding the contracting industry.
Emily Harding
Emily Harding of the Center for Strategic and International Studies will bring an intelligence community and national defense focus to her remarks. She is director of the intelligence, national security and technology program at CSIS and vice president of the defense and security department. Harding is a public servant, writer, thought leader and professor. She was deputy staff director on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence; she was an instrumental team leader at the CIA during crisis scenarios; and she was director for Iran at the National Security Council. She teaches at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and writes for the Wall Street Journal, BBC, NPR and others. Harding will give us the context we need to understand DOGE from a historical, global and strategic perspective.
Emily Murphy
Emily Murphy is a well-known quantity in GovCon, having led the General Services Administration, the heart of government acquisition, during the first Trump administration. She’s been in the public sector for nearly decades, with significant time spent on the Hill as a policy director and senior counsel and a stint in the 2000s as chief acquisition officer at GSA. Murphy has dedicated a large portion of her career to small business empowerment, serving as a senior adviser on government contracts and business development to the Small Business Administration and, earlier in her career, as a small member for the Committee on Small Business in Congress. The accomplished executive now runs her own business, a consultancy called Government Procurement Strategies, while also serving as senior fellow at George Mason University’s Center for Government Contracting. Nobody knows the industry better than Murphy, so her work as a moderator on the panel will be invaluable.
Aaron Roth
Each of the panelists has experience in both the public and private sectors, and Aaron Roth, head of federal strategy and security at the Chertoff Group, is no different. For the last half decade at the aforementioned firm, Roth has worked closely with prominent U.S. defense contractors on market analysis and engagement matters. He began his career, though, with nearly a quarter of a century with the U.S. Coast Guard, occupying leadership roles like chief of mission performance and strategic advisor to the commandant. He went on to a tour at the Transportation Security Administration, where he was deputy executive assistant administrator for operations support and the chief of staff for the chief of operations. Roth will provide his military-, government- and advisory group-informed thoughts on DOGE.
Roger Waldron
Roger Waldron’s extensive experience at GSA will complement moderator Emily Murphy’s own history with the
agency. Waldron, who is currently president of the Coalition for Common Sense in Government Procurement, spent 15 years at GSA. He directed the then-Acquisition Management Center, was a senior
procurement executive and gained a deep familiarity with programs like the multiple award schedule contracts and IT government-wide acquisition contracts, which he then parlayed into a counsel role afterward at law firm Mayer Brown LLP, advising clients on all manner of GovCon issues. His CSGP organization is committed to enabling the work of its GovCon clients and to advocating for their essential place in the accomplishment of the American mission. In this way, he will be a critical voice on the panel in informing on the industrial base’s continued relevance in these turbulent times.
How Is DOGE Impacting GovCon?
Contractors everywhere are dying to know what the next six months in the industry is going to look like — much less the over one year that the Department of Government Efficiency is slated to still be active. Potomac Officers Club is bringing you this panel of experts to answer as many of your questions as possible — “Adapting to DOGE: What Government Efficiency Reforms Mean for Contractors” will be a robust discussion as well as an opportunity for networking and Q&A with these brilliant minds, not to mention all of the other high-profile speakers on the schedule at the 2025 Digital Transformation Summit. Browse the full lineup and register before tickets sell out.
