Investigation: Eric Schmidt helps fund the salaries of over 24 Biden administration officials through the Federation of American Scientists and Schmidt Futures
Alex Thompson / Politico : Tweets: @ttp_updates , @techwontsaveus , @alexbward , and @j_timmer Tweets: @ttp_updates : New piece featuring our research from @AlexThomp which quotes TTP Director Katie Paul: “Eric Schmidt appears to be systematically abusing this little-known set of programs to exert his influence in the federal government.” https://twitter.com/... @techwontsaveus : “The revelation of Schmidt's role in funding the jobs ... adds to a picture of the tech mogul's growing influence in the White House ... at a time when the federal government is looking closely at future technologies and potential regulations of AI.” https://www.politico.com/... Alex Ward / @alexbward : “some close observers of AI policy believe that Schmidt is using the program to enhance his clout within the administration and to advance his AI agenda.” https://www.politico.com/... John Timmer / @j_timmer : Hilarious - a political reporter has discovered that science policy fellows exist! https://www.politico.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
This investigation scales up a story Politico has been building all year: March reporting detailed how Schmidt's charity indirectly paid two employees inside Biden's Office of Science and Technology Policy (Schmidt's influence over OSTP), and October coverage flagged experts' conflict-of-interest worries about his private AI investments while he chaired the National Security Commission on AI (conflict-of-interest concerns). The new finding — more than 24 officials' salaries routed through the Federation of American Scientists and Schmidt Futures — turns what looked like isolated placements into a systematic staffing channel, which is why TTP's Katie Paul frames it as abuse of 'little-known' federal programs.
The timing matters because the federal government was actively writing rules on future technologies, including AI, at the moment these privately funded staffers were inside agencies. The playbook has company: Dustin Moskovitz's Open Philanthropy runs a parallel model funding Congressional and agency staff focused on AI risk (Open Philanthropy's salary-funding push), suggesting billionaire-backed payroll placement is becoming a recognized route into policymaking rather than a one-off.
First-order effects
- The more than two dozen Biden administration officials whose salaries flow through FAS and Schmidt Futures now face direct conflict-of-interest exposure, since their paychecks come from a funder with documented positions on the policies they help shape.
- Schmidt's earlier, smaller-scale arrangement — two OSTP employees — drew sources-based criticism; the 12x larger footprint gives ethics overseers and reporters like Alex Thompson a pattern to investigate rather than an anecdote.
Second-order effects
- Other funders running the same model, notably Open Philanthropy's placement of AI-risk staff in Congress and federal agencies, get pulled into the same scrutiny and may face pressure to disclose or restructure their arrangements.
- The White House and Congress face a forced response on program design: if externally funded detailees keep expanding, expect tightening of the rules governing who may pay federal staff — or defensive expansion of the programs by interested funders before rules land.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, private payroll becomes a standing staffing layer for government science and technology policy, shifting influence from formal lobbying toward whoever can quietly fund civil-service-adjacent jobs.
- That structure invites eventual regulation of third-party salary funding in government — the same way campaign finance and revolving-door rules evolved — with the Schmidt and Moskovitz cases likely cited as the template examples.
The trend: Tech billionaires are institutionalizing policy influence by directly funding government staff salaries, converting philanthropy into a staffing channel for the agencies writing AI and technology rules.