WIRED reports that a little-known nonprofit, the America by Design Foundation, is paying the salaries of at least two staffers at the National Design Studio, the government group created to redesign federal websites. The foundation is run by James Burnham, general counsel of SpaceXAI and a former DOGE member. The two staffers, Amittai Groot and John Cafazza, are employed by the foundation and detailed to the Office of Personnel Management, according to documents reviewed by WIRED.
NDS, led by Airbnb cofounder Joe Gebbia, sits in the Executive Office of the President and has launched sites including TrumpRx, RealFood.gov and America.gov. WIRED says the arrangement echoes DOGE's use of special government employees and raises questions about whether NDS is skirting hiring rules. The foundation's funding is undisclosed.
One detail appears to violate the Intergovernment Personnel Act's requirement that workers be employed at their home organization for at least 90 days before being loaned to government: Groot began working for the foundation in April 2026 and entered government in May 2026. "The fact that we wouldn’t know who is employing and paying these people is troubling in any context," said Don Moynihan, a University of Michigan public policy professor.