If US uses FOSS software in its operations (it does, everyone does) it has a vested interest in keeping these projects alive.
Also many of the sponsored projects help people circumvent authoritarian government overreach, which is something that until recently has been considered “good” for the US. The more freely information can flow the harder it is for authoritarian regimes to exert control.
For those who maybe breeze past it in the article linked, here’s an unofficial tool for searching all of the zillions of Kagi bangs: https://kbe.smaertness.net/
They have all the usual, !g for Google, !gi Google Images, !b Bing, !ddg, !brave, etc, plus like a billion niche ones.
Unlike free search where there’s definitely no incentive to sell your data to keep the lights on, right?
Ahh yes, consolidation and centralization, core pillars of the FOSS movement.
Use it? The US invented it. The US has historically funded it as part of their human rights initiatives. Like I said:
Given the nature of the Tor network, it’s likely any “official” use within the US government would probably involve things like communicating with people working undercover / informants, etc., and not be something broadly discussed.