The U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, reportedly plans to rewrite the software that the U.S. Social Security Administration uses to make payments. 

Wired today cited sources as saying the initiative will focus on switching code written in COBOL to a different programming language. According to the paper, DOGE intends to complete the upgrade in a matter of months. Experts cited in the report expressed concern that attempting to rewrite an entire federal agency’s code base so quickly could lead to technical issues.

According to the SSA, its software systems contain more than 60 million lines of COBOL code. Originally released in 1960, COBOL is a relatively simple programming language geared towards writing mainframe software. The syntax continues to be used to this date in financial applications because it provides an extensive set of features for processing transaction data.

According to Wired, the “core logic” of the SSA’s software is among the components that are written in COBOL. This core logic is responsible for important tasks such as issuing social security numbers and managing payments. A former senior SSA technologist told the paper that DOGE’s attempt to quickly move away from COBOL could cause the software to miscalculate payments or not issue them at all.

The last major upgrade to the SSA’s code base was in the 1980s, when officials rolled out a database called MADAM. The database is written in only COBOL but also assembly language. This is a low-level, highly complicated syntax with similarities to the machine code that processors use to represent computations internally.

Before an organization deploys a new application in production, it has to test the software for bugs. The former SSA technologist cited by Wired stated that the testing phase of DOGE’s proposed COBOL rewrite would alone take several years. Carrying out the rewrite in several months may require DOGE developers to skip important quality assurance steps, which would increase the risk of technical issues.

It’s unclear when the software upgrade effort is set to begin. According to the report, an internal SSA document that outlines the agency’s priorities for May doesn’t mention the planned code revamp. 

The push to move SSA away from COBOL is reportedly led by Steve Davis, an early SpaceX Corp. employee whom the New York Times recently identified as the effective head of DOGE. It’s believed at least 10 DOGE staffers are currently working at the SSA. Since they began their work, the agency has experienced frequent website outages and other technical issues.

Today’s report comes few weeks after DOGE shut down 18F, a technology unit of the U.S. General Services Administration. The approximately 90-person team worked with government agencies to improve federal websites. It also helped streamline technology procurement programs. 

Photo: Unsplash