- Trump's DOGE commission has taken a hacksaw to federal government agencies and programs
- The $9 billion JWCC contract - administered by the Department of Defense - has thus far remained unscathed
- Whether it is subject to cuts is likely a political decision, analyst Jack Gold told Fierce
Tech billionaire Elon Musk is on a mission to gut federal spending, operating under the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) formed by President Donald Trump. Though DOGE is a special commission rather than an actual federal agency and lacks authority to overturn appropriations approved by Congress, Musk and Trump’s campaign has forged ahead, calling into question the future of a wide range of programs.
DOGE hasn’t made it to the Department of Defense – yet – but we were left wondering: Will the $9 billion Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) contract survive the hacksaw?
A Department of Defense spokesperson told Fierce $2.34 billion worth of task orders from the JWCC have been awarded to date. That’s up from around $600 million in March of 2024, but means three-quarters of the money allocated for the contract still remains to be spent – or cut.
Though Congress has yet to hash out the final budget for the current year, Republicans have submitted proposals which would make cuts across many departments but substantially boost defense spending. That seems like it would bode well for the future of the JWCC, but it’s hard to tell for certain.
“This is a tough call,” Jack Gold, founder and principal at J. Gold Associates, told Fierce. “On the one hand you’d think that the DoD is immune from all this slashing of budgets – at least one would hope so. But there simply is no way to know for sure.”
According to Gold, though, there’s more to worry about than just cuts. He noted that in the past, contract awards have tended to favor those who are in Trump’s good graces. If one of the four companies approved to fill JWCC orders – AWS, Microsoft, Google and Oracle – runs afoul of Trump, it’s possible they could lose out.
“I do expect its one reason why all the major players’ execs were so keen to show Trump some love at the inauguration,” Gold said. “Currying favor goes a long way with this administration.”
As for whether DOGE touches the JWCC, “bottom line, it looks like this will be as much apolitical decision as a strategic one as to whether or not it goes forward,” Gold concluded.