The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is led by billionaire and White House advisor Elon Musk, announced on Monday 24 March that it has canceled more than 200,000 government credit cards as part of its mission to cut government spending.
This started a few weeks ago
On 18 February, DOGE said it was working with a number of agencies to reduce admin costs on government credit cards. It announced on X/Twitter an estimation that the federal government had 4.6 million credit cards and 90 million unique transactions for the fiscal year of 2024.
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Trump issued an order to “transform” spending
A week after this estimation was made, U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order for a “transformation in Federal spending,” and the freezing of agency employee credit cards for 30 days according to the White House website.
DOGE gave an update three weeks later
On Monday 24 March, DOGE posted an update on the order signed by Trump, announcing that it has deactivated around 298,000 government credit cards.
Some employees are exempt from the card freezing
DOGE said that the pilot program audited 16 agencies where they found “unused/unneeded credit cards.”
Some are exempt from the credit card freeze, those are employees “utilizing such credit cards for, disaster relief or natural disaster response benefits or operations or other critical services as determined by the Agency Head,” according to USA Today.
What the freezing of credit cards means for agencies
While some employees have been exempt from the freezing of credit cards, multiple agencies have reported issues with commencing everyday operations due to the freezing of the cards.
The Washington Post reported that employees at the Food and Drug Administration have not been able to order lab supplies for their work in checking the safety of food and drugs for American consumers.
Some agencies were given a $1 spending limit
The Department of Defense also wrote a memo on 5 March stating civilian employees at the department are to be hit with a $1 spending limit on their government travel credit cards, adding that travel “in direct support of military operations or a permanent change of station” is exempt.
The Washington Post also reported that the $1 spending limit has hit several other agencies as well.
The freezing comes as part of DOGE’s government cuts
This comes as part of DOGE’s goal to cut U.S. government spending. Other than the freezing of over 200,000 government credit cards, DOGE has terminated and laid off over 100,000 federal employees and canceled several DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) programs.
