Amy Gleason Named Acting Administrator of DOGE, While Elon Musk Oversees
The White House has announced that Amy Gleason, a healthcare technology executive with experience under both the Trump and Biden administrations, is the acting administrator of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Despite Gleason’s appointment, Elon Musk, the senior White House advisor and tech entrepreneur, continues to oversee DOGE, according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
It remains unclear what the precise division of responsibilities is between Gleason and Musk. However, Musk has been the public face of the cost-cutting unit, which was established last month. He frequently appears with former President Trump, most recently at a cabinet meeting, to promote DOGE’s activities. Musk also uses his social media platform, X, to regularly update his millions of followers on the group’s initiatives.
DOGE has become a central element of the current administration’s objective to reduce the federal workforce. To date, approximately 20,000 government employees have been let go.
Here’s a look at Gleason’s background and the ambiguity surrounding leadership at DOGE:
Who is Amy Gleason?
According to her LinkedIn profile, Gleason currently serves as a senior advisor. Before the name change after Trump’s inauguration, the DOGE was originally the U.S. Digital Service. The USDS was created by the Obama administration following the issues with HealthCare.gov, to work with federal agencies to improve the government’s digital infrastructure.
Gleason worked for USDS from October 2018 to December 2021, a tenure that included parts of the Trump administration and the Biden administration. She rejoined the agency in January.
Gleason’s career has primarily been in the private sector. In a 2021 interview on the Tell Me Where It Hurts podcast, she recounted that she began as an emergency room nurse where she first encountered the fusion of technology and healthcare. She subsequently held positions at several healthcare technology firms, among them Allscripts, which provided electronic medical records software.
During the span where Gleason worked at USDS, she was a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force’s data team, offering data that informed the federal government’s reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Confusion Surrounding DOGE’s Leadership
Musk was brought into the administration as a special government employee, which is a temporary designation for individuals hired for their outside expertise. The administration has faced legal challenges regarding Musk’s decision-making authority.
The executive order that created DOGE specifies the office is to be run by an administrator who reports directly to the White House chief of staff. While Musk is a senior advisor to the president, in multiple court cases which challenge the role of both Musk and DOGE within the federal government, Justice Department lawyers have been unable to clarify who the administrator is.
The most recent example of this came during a Monday hearing. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly questioned Justice Department attorney Bradley Humphreys about the administrator of DOGE during a lawsuit brought against the Treasury Department regarding its sharing of payment data with DOGE. “I don’t know the answer to that,” Humphreys said, according to Lawfare.
On Tuesday, a reporter asked White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt for the identity of the DOGE administrator. “Elon Musk is overseeing DOGE,” Leavitt responded. “There are career officials at DOGE. There are political appointees at DOGE. I’m not going to reveal the name of that individual from this podium.”
By Wednesday morning, however, Leavitt confirmed press reports that Gleason is the acting administrator of DOGE. “Amy Gleason has been the DOGE administrator for quite some time—I believe several weeks, maybe a month—I’m not actually sure of the specific timeline,” she stated.
