Sahil Lavingia, a former software engineer for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), discussed his brief experience working within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in an interview on NPR's All Things Considered with Juana Summers. The interview, which took place on June 2, 2025, covered Lavingia's motivations for joining DOGE, his observations on its role, and his reasons for leaving. Lavingia, who had previously campaigned for Bernie Sanders and applied to the U.S. Digital Service, was attracted to DOGE by the prospect of enhancing the user experience of American citizens through software. He believed that software could significantly improve interactions with the federal government. However, Lavingia's time at DOGE was short-lived, lasting only 55 days. His access was revoked after he openly discussed his experiences. He found that DOGE lacked direct authority and primarily served as a "fall guy" for unpopular decisions made by agency heads appointed by the Trump administration. According to Lavingia, agencies made the decisions to cut staff and contracts, while DOGE absorbed the resulting negative publicity. Addressing concerns about potential layoffs at the VA, Lavingia stated that a 15% reduction in force, which the VA secretary had targeted, was unlikely. He believed that the VA would not cut jobs related to nursing, clinicians, physicians, or direct veteran care due to the critical role of the VA's hospitals and direct care providers. Lavingia also commented on the prevalence of waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal bureaucracy, noting that he did not find the federal government to be rife with such issues. He expressed surprise at the government's efficiency, especially considering the decades of scrutiny it has faced. Lavingia pointed out that he wrote open-source code for anyone to access and found it ironic that he was let go for being transparent in an organization that pledged maximum transparency. He had felt that Elon Musk wanted DOGE to be maximally transparent.