The Fall of 18F: Why This Matters More Than You Think

There’s a good chance you’ve never heard of 18F. That’s not surprising.

Most of the best work in government tech happens behind the scenes, quietly making things work better, faster, and cheaper.

But today, 18F – the team that set the gold standard for modernizing government technology – was shut down overnight.

This isn’t just another round of government belt-tightening. This is an intentional dismantling of a group that was actively saving taxpayers money while improving access to critical services.

What Was 18F, and Why Did It Matter?

18F was a team of civil servants who did the kind of digital transformation work that private sector companies charge millions for.

They were the ones fixing outdated government websites, making it easier to get a passport, improving tax filing, and ensuring weather data was accessible. Their work was practical, measurable, and impactful.

The team wasn’t some bloated bureaucracy either.

They were a lean, highly skilled group of engineers, designers, and strategists who brought modern software development practices into government agencies that desperately needed them.

Why Would the Government Kill Its Own “Gold Standard” Team?

The official reasoning is that 18F was “non-critical.” That’s absurd.

In government, where IT projects often cost billions and still don’t work (remember Healthcare.gov’s disastrous launch?), 18F was one of the few teams proving that tech could be done efficiently.

This is part of a larger pattern. The US Digital Service, another team focused on fixing government tech, has been slowly gutted. And now, 18F is gone too.

When you look at who benefits from these cuts, the answer becomes clear: contractors. Without teams like 18F, government agencies are forced to rely on private companies that charge far more for work that often delivers far less.

What Happens Now?

The worst part? 18F was axed with no transition plan.

Projects that directly impact people’s lives—like making it easier to access social services—are now dead in the water.

Even the employees themselves were locked out of their computers, unable to even retrieve personal documents.

And while leadership talks about “cost-cutting,” let’s be real: this will end up costing more.

Without internal expertise, agencies will have to throw money at private firms to clean up the mess.

This isn’t just about one team losing their jobs. This is about whether the government should have the ability to build and maintain its own digital infrastructure or if we’re handing everything over to private contractors who profit from inefficiency.

If you care about government services that actually work—things like renewing passports online, filing taxes easily, or accessing public data—then you should care about what just happened to 18F.

And if history has taught us anything, the people behind 18F aren’t going to stay quiet. They built modern government tech once.

They’ll find a way to do it again.