Elon Musk-Led DOGE Cancels Over 2 Lakh Authorities Credit score Playing cards. Heres Why
New Delhi:
The US Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE), headed by billionaire and White Home advisor Elon Musk, has deactivated over 2 lakh federal authorities bank cards to streamline spending.
The transfer, introduced just a few days in the past on X (previously Twitter), follows a broader push to curtail administrative prices and overhaul authorities expenditure practices.
Why has DOGE deactivated bank cards
DOGE first mentioned on February 18 that it was working with companies to simplify authorities bank card accounts and remove pointless expenditures.
In keeping with the division’s estimates, the federal authorities had round 4.6 million energetic bank cards, facilitating round 90 million transactions in the course of the 2024 fiscal yr.
Per week later, US President Donald Trump bolstered the hassle by signing an government order to reshape federal spending. The order positioned a 30-day freeze on company worker bank cards, impacting a number of departments.
In its newest replace just a few days in the past, DOGE mentioned that, following a three-week audit of 16 federal companies, over 200,000 bank cards had been deactivated.
Weekly Credit score Card Replace!
Pilot program with 16 companies to audit unused/unneeded bank cards. After 3 weeks, >200,000 playing cards have been de-activated. Nice progress this previous week by @HHSGov @Inside
As a reminder, firstly of the audit, there have been ~4.6M energetic… pic.twitter.com/xZaZJ51AOV
— Division of Authorities Effectivity (@DOGE) March 11, 2025
Simply final week, the company introduced the cancellation of round 1.46 lakh playing cards.
Commenting on the matter, Elon Musk mentioned, “There are nonetheless nearly twice as many credit score/buying playing cards as individuals within the authorities, and the boundaries are $10,000! A number of shady expenditures are occurring.”
There are nonetheless nearly twice as many credit score/buying playing cards as individuals within the authorities, and the boundaries are $10,000!
A number of shady expenditures occurring. https://t.co/HrVkuA6Q1s
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 5, 2025
Efforts to streamline federal spending
Donald Trump and Elon Musk have lengthy championed decreasing authorities spending. Whereas the bank card freeze order consists of exemptions for workers engaged in catastrophe aid, pure catastrophe response and different essential companies, reviews counsel it has disrupted routine operations in a number of federal companies.
As an illustration, staff on the Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) have confronted difficulties in procuring important lab provides, that are essential for making certain shopper security, in keeping with Wired and The Washington Submit.
As well as, civilian staff on the Division of Protection have been affected by a drastic discount of their authorities journey bank card limits.
A March 5 memo revealed that these limits had been minimize to simply $1, with exemptions just for journey instantly supporting navy operations or everlasting station adjustments.
Regardless of these measures, DOGE has not disclosed the projected monetary financial savings ensuing from the cancellations, leaving many questioning the precise affect of the initiative.
Impression on Federal Businesses
In keeping with a report in Newsweek, related previous cost-cutting measures, akin to mass layoffs inside federal companies, have yielded little to no monetary profit.
What’s DOGE?
Established by an government order on January 20, DOGE is a newly fashioned advisory physique tasked with decreasing federal authorities inefficiencies. Since its inception, the division has pushed for drastic workforce reductions.
