(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Frightened Yet? Wait Until Musk Has Control of This Obscure Federal Agency... [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-01-31

The General Services Administration rarely is in the headlines. It briefly rose to public knowledge in 2020 when the leader of the agency refused to help the transition from Trump 1.0 to Biden. Then, it went back to its boring and obscure tasks.

Now, this agency is the next target of the hostile takeover Elon Musk has planned. He’s already visited the agency this week which shows how important the agency is to his efforts to control every facet of the federal government.

Billionaire Elon Musk visited the General Services Administration headquarters in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, several sources confirmed with Nextgov/FCW. The federal agency, located in Foggy Bottom just blocks from the White House, may not be well-known to much of the public, but it is a centralized hub that helps the government buy tens of billions of dollars worth of products and services, manage its real estate and use technology. It also has a role in government-wide policy. Musk has several longtime associates installed at the agency, which could prove to be critical in his efforts to exert influence in Washington as he pushes ahead in his plans to cut costs, people and regulations under the Department of Government Efficiency, which Trump recently installed in a White House tech team. Musk’s own official role isn’t yet clear.

You’re probably wondering why this anodyne sounding visit matters. Well, get ready to be frightened yet again when I explain what this agency does and what Musk could do with it below the fold…

First, let’s explain what the General Services Administration (GSA from now on) does.

The General Services Administration (GSA) is an independent agency of the United States government established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. GSA supplies products and communications for U.S. government offices, provides transportation and office space to federal employees, and develops government-wide cost-minimizing policies and other management tasks.

Sounds like just the agency the so-called “DOGE” wants to infiltrate in order to pursue the agenda of destroying the government, doesn’t it?

Procurement

It is responsible for assisting with procurement across the entire federal government.

The Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) provides products and services available to federal agencies across the U.S. government. GSA assists with procurement work for other government agencies. As part of this effort, it maintains the GSA Schedule Program, which other agencies can use to buy goods and services. The GSA Schedule can be thought of as a collection of pre-negotiated contracts.[38] Procurement managers from government agencies can view these agreements and make purchases from the GSA Schedule by following the appropriate procedures prescribed by Federal Acquisition Regulation, or FAR, Subpart 8.4.

The implications of Musk control of procurement lists and procedures is staggering. He will have control over the process from beginning to end. He can prioritize contracts with Trump or Musk loyalists or even his own companies! Just imagine...

In business, the procurement process can be a vital part of a company's strategy because the ability to obtain sufficient quantities of materials or services at an acceptable price can determine if operations will be profitable. Similarly, government agencies must pay close attention to procurement in order to remain within budget. Procurement budgets typically allot a specific amount that managers can spend to procure the goods or services they need. Broadly viewed, the procurement process entails every step from the preparation and processing of a request for certain items to the receipt of the good or service and approval of payment. On a more detailed level, this can involve establishing standards and specifications for goods and services, forecasting the organization's needs, researching and selecting suppliers, arranging for financing, negotiating prices and contracts, finalizing the transaction, making payments, and managing inventory. As such, companies often require support from several different internal departments, and coordination among them, for successful procurement.

Government Buildings and Vehicles

The GSA is also responsible for acquiring and managing many federal buildings and federal vehicles.

The Public Buildings Service (PBS) acquires and manages thousands of federal properties. In accordance with Title 40 of the United States Code, GSA is charged with promulgating regulations governing the acquisition, use, and disposal of real property (real estate and land) and personal property (essentially all other property). This activity is centered in GSA's Office of Governmentwide Policy. Policies promulgated by GSA are developed in collaboration with federal agencies and are typically published for public comment in the Federal Register before publication as a Final Rule. ... GSA contributes to the management of U.S. Federal property, including a 215,000 vehicle motor pool.

Musk has already stated that he plans to downsize the federal governmental building footprint. Control of the GSA allows him to do just that. His cronies installed at the GSA have already put several government buildings up for auction and alerted potential buyers that many more could be on the market soon.

What will he do with the federal vehicles? Downsize the number of them? Sell them? Replace them with his Tesla vehicles? At this point, who the fuck knows...

Technology Transformation Services

The GSA is also responsible for modernizing IT operations and procurement of technology across the federal government.

In 2009, a new Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies (now the Office of Products and Programs) was created to expand the effort to serve the public through technology. GSA began managing the Presidential Innovation Fellows program the same year it launched 18F with a team focused on improving the federal government's digital services. The Centers of Excellence, introduced in October 2017, are working to accelerate the modernization of IT infrastructure and reduce legacy IT spending across the government.

Here’s the most alarming part of a paywalled article I paid $10 just to read and report back for you (bolded emphasis MINE)

Elon Musk’s minions—from trusted sidekicks to random college students and former Musk company interns—have taken over the General Services Administration, a critical government agency that manages federal offices and technology. Already, the team is attempting to use White House security credentials to gain unusual access to GSA tech, deploying a suite of new AI software, and recreating the office in X’s image, according to leaked documents obtained by WIRED. There also appears to be an effort to use IT credentials from the Executive Office of the President to access GSA laptops and internal GSA infrastructure. Typically, access to agency systems requires workers to be employed at such agencies, sources say. While Musk's team could be trying to obtain better laptops and equipment from GSA, sources fear that the mandate laid out in the DOGE executive order would grant the body broad access to GSA systems and data. That includes sensitive procurement data, data internal to all the systems and services GSA offers, and internal monitoring software to surveil GSA employees as part of normal auditing and security processes.

That’s right — Musk and his minions are trying to use White House security credentials as a backdoor to gain access to any and every laptop in the federal government and are using those credentials to access laptops to attempt to access the critical information above.

They are also trying to implement AI software for all government technology.

Musk’s lieutenants are also working to authorize the use of AI tools, including Google Gemini and Cursor (an AI coding assistant), for federal workers. On January 30, the group met with Google to discuss Telemetry, a software used to monitor the health and performance of applications, according to a document obtained by WIRED.

Just what we need — an AI tool to hoover up sensitive information and give it to Big Tech… no information stored on computers is safe now.

I hope this article shows you how committed Elon Musk is at controlling every facet of the government. While the Tangerine Terror is doing the outrageous cultural grievance machine items, Musk is spreading his tentacles into the very functions of government itself. We may never recover from this deliberate damage the world’s richest man is doing to us all.

I admit this article is above my paygrade. I don’t quite fully understand what I am trying to tackle here. I appreciate comments and corrections from people who understand this stuff in order to make this article better.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://dailykos.com/stories/2025/1/31/2300517/-Frightened-Yet-Wait-Until-Musk-Has-Control-of-This-Obscure-Federal-Agency?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/

You are viewing proxied material from magical.fish. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.