A Trump administration freeze on purchase cards that agencies use to cover everything from dumpster pickups at national parks to liquid nitrogen for lifesaving military research is upending work across the government, according to more than two dozen affected employees and records obtained by The Washington Post.
The crackdown on workers’ routine expenses is part of a campaign by President Trump and billionaire Elon Musk to overhaul America’s sprawling bureaucracy, forcing fresh justification for public spending in a push that supporters herald as long overdue but some workers find demeaning and disruptive. A Feb. 26 executive order directing the 30-day spending pause, with exceptions for “critical services,’’ cast the measure as an effort to ensure that “employees are accountable to the American public.’’
As a result of the move, government scientists who study food safety say they are running out of cleaning fluid for their labs; federal aviation workers report cuts to travel for urgent work; and contractors who help identify US soldiers killed in combat were told to pause their efforts, said three forensic genealogists who, like other workers interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
Musk has turned to the cards alongside contracts and workforce cuts to help slash a promised $2 trillion from the federal budget — a feat that experts say is impossible without drastic changes to entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare. The card purchases accounted for roughly $40 billion in the past budget year, according to the General Services Administration, which oversees the program.
The net effect of the freeze has in some corners resembled a government shutdown, federal workers said in interviews — all against the backdrop of widespread frustration over Musk and Trump’s broader mission to shrink the 2.3 million-person civil service.
As access to cards and accounts ground to a halt across agencies over the past two weeks, a frantic scramble ensued. The impacts landed hard in parts of the Army, disrupting operations while leaders already were grappling with administration directives, workers said.
When the National Park Service last month told staff their travel and purchase card limits would be set to $1 the next day, the email, reviewed by The Post, sent workers into a “tailspin,’’ said an employee.
“This can be anything and everything, and is often the stuff behind the scenes the public doesn’t think about,’’ the employee said. “Like, when someone empties a trash can at a visitor center, that trash goes into a dumpster. We pay someone to ultimately remove that from the park.’’
