The Treasury Department is appointing an ally of billionaire Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service to a senior position in the department overseeing the nation’s powerful payment systems, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reflect private deliberations.
Tom Krause, a Silicon Valley executive with ties to DOGE, will become the fiscal assistant secretary of the Treasury Department, the people said. He replaces David A. Lebryk, who resigned after objecting to Krause’s demands to stop payments on foreign aid — a measure Lebryk resisted as illegal.
Krause’s position will give him control over the Treasury Department system responsible for disbursing more than $5 trillion in annual payments, including for Social Security, Medicare, tax refunds and thousands of other items. Musk has demanded on social media that Treasury unilaterally stop sending these payments, accusing the department’s career staff of breaking the law.
Beyond the payments system, Krause will oversee a broad range of vital Treasury Department functions, including auctions of U.S. debt, management of large-scale tech systems and handling of the federal debt limit.
On Wednesday, Krause told employees that he would keep his job at Cloud Software Group even as he works at Treasury as a “special government employee,” according to an internal email provided by a company spokeswoman, Caitlin Russell.
“Let me be clear — as CEO of Cloud Software Group, I am committed to our company and you, our employees,” Krause said in the email, which was first reported by the news outlet CRN.
Shortly after Krause took over at Cloud Software Group, the company laid off 15 percent of its workforce, followed by an additional 12 percent cut a year later. The company announced a third round of cuts last month.
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