Earlier this month, all of the employees at 18F, a unit of government technologists under the General Services Administration, awoke to a surprise.

The entire department — which helps build, buy, and share technological products across government agencies — discovered they’d been placed on administrative leave.

18F, named after its headquarters at 18th and F Street, plays crucial roles across the federal bureaucracy: It’s the team behind the IRS free tax filing system, and the National Weather Service’s public website, weather.gov. It launched in 2014 under the Obama administration, emerging from the Presidential Innovation Fellows program, which sought to bring more “technologists” into the federal government. Following the disastrous implementation of healthcare.gov, 18F became a permanent home for government digital services.

In many ways, the writing had long been on the wall for the beleaguered staff at 18F. Republicans had routinely accused it of being too woke for its culture and practices — including a Slackbot that privately alerts staffers when they’ve used offensive or non-inclusive language. Weeks prior, Elon Musk had posted on his social platform X that 18F “has been deleted.”

But for some employees at 18F, inclusive politics is only part of the explanation for why they were axed. Three former 18F employees who spoke with The Intercept argue that their role in safeguarding against unchecked technology spending put a Musk-sized target on their back.

“Our whole approach was saving the government money and time.”

“It’s a move to cut the brakes guarding against reckless government technology spending,” said one former 18F employee. With 18F out of the picture, Musk “and other private corporations who want to basically take advantage of taxpayer money can get in with less scrutiny.”

The former employee, who spoke anonymously for fear of........

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