President Trump on Wednesday directed federal agencies to implement a 30-day freeze on the use of government-issued credit cards as part of their latest executive order.
The order implements the Ministry of Government Efficiency's “cost efficiency initiative.” It says, “It aims to ensure that government spending is transparent and that government officials are responsible for the American people.
The suspension of credit card usage comes a week after Doge discovered nearly $40 billion in plastic-related spending last year issued by the government.
“To the maximum extent permitted by law, all credit cards held by agents' employees shall be treated as frozen for 30 days from the date of this order,” reads the Credit Cards section.
This order includes exceptions to fees associated with employees relating to employees who use by employees for such credit cards, disaster relief or natural disaster response benefits or other important services, as determined by the agent's director in consultation with DOGE.
The cost-cutting program led by billionaire Elon Musk has pledged to “simplify” the federal credit card program managed by the General Services Agency (GSA).
The US government currently has around 4.6 million active credit or credit card accounts. This exceeds the total number of federal workers (approximately 3 million) that do not include government contractors or active duty veterans.
According to Doge, which cited GSA data, approximately 90 million unique transactions were made on cards in 2024, with about $40 billion in federal government bills running.
“Doge works with agents to simplify programs and reduce administrative costs,” the group wrote in X last week.
According to the GSA, credit cards linked to major banks are issued to more than 250 federal agencies and federal employees of Native American Tribal Governments to “purchases on behalf of the federal government.”
For decades, the federal government has been plagued by scandals involving the use of taxpayer-funded credit cards.
Over the years, government watchdogs have discovered everything from adult entertainment to Lego toys to gorgeous multi-course meals, to taxpayers' billed.
Trump's executive order also directs federal agencies to work with DOGE to “build a centralized technology system,” and “instructs a seamless record of all payments issued by the agencies, based on the contracts and grants covered by each agency, and to justify a summary of each payment submitted by employees of the agencies that approved the payment.”
The agency manager reviews contract policies and personnel and “is tasked with considering consistency with all existing covered contracts and grants, as well as all existing cover agreements that are consistent with applicable law.
The president's order continues to direct federal agencies and Doges to create a system that records approvals for “federally funded travel for conferences and other non-essential purposes.”
“When an agency system is installed, the agency manager shall prohibit agency employees from engaged in federally funded travel for meetings or other non-essential purposes unless travel authorization officials submit a short written justification for federally funded travel within such systems,” EO said.
Musk aims to reduce at least $1 trillion in government waste, fraud and abuse through its Doge initiative.
