Explore how Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) played a crucial role in the U.S. government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic in this 37-minute conference talk from SREcon23 Americas. Learn how SREs navigated regulatory constraints and administrative complexities to rapidly deploy and manage critical software services during unprecedented times. Discover the creative approaches and incident response skills employed by government SREs to meet the urgent needs of the public, challenging the perception of slow and inflexible government software systems. Gain insights from speakers Amy Quispe, Marc Alvidrez, and Rick Hawes of the U.S. Digital Service as they share their experiences and lessons learned from this unique period in software engineering history.