Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency put a $1 spending limit on most credit cards belonging to employees and contractors of the General Services Administration—a critical agency that manages IT and office buildings for the US government—along with at least three other federal agencies. Similar restrictions are expected to roll out to the entire government workforce soon, according to several sources familiar with the matter.
“Effective immediately, all GSA SmartPay Travel and Purchase Cards issued to GSA employees and contractors are being paused and will not be available for use except in very limited circumstances,” GSA wrote in a memo to staff Thursday morning viewed by WIRED. The memo later stated that for “up to 0.1% of the GSA workforce, requests may be made for certain individual purchase charge card spend thresholds be set above $1. Please provide the rationale for all such deviations on an employee-by-employee basis along with the proposed increased threshold.”
The GSA, one of the first agencies that Musk allies infiltrated after DOGE was established, manages the SmartPay program for more than 250 federal agencies and organizations. The SmartPay website claims it is “the world’s largest government charge card and commercial payment solutions program.”
The spending freeze comes after DOGE posted on X earlier this week that it was working to “simplify” the government credit card program and “reduce costs.”
The restrictions immediately apply to GSA, the Office of Personnel Management, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, and the United States Agency for International Development, according to a source with direct knowledge of the project. All four of the agencies have been prominent targets of DOGE in recent weeks. Employees who spoke with WIRED say the changes will result in enormous complications to their existing workflows and that excessive or fraudulent spending is rare. Those who’ve already received approval for travel expenses (and may currently be traveling) have to request a temporary spending limit increase, the sources say.
One important reason that federal employees typically put expenses on special government-issued credit cards is to ensure they avoid paying state sales tax on things like hotels and rental cars, which federal agencies are supposed to be exempt from. The GSA’s website states that the state sales tax exemption is “determined by method of payment,” not by the employee’s ability to prove they work for the federal government.
As DOGE attempts to cut billions of dollars from the federal budget, Elon Musk has been posting examples of alleged “fraud” his team has uncovered to his over 218 million followers on X. In some cases, reporting from WIRED and other outlets suggests DOGE may be misinterpreting or misrepresenting what they’ve found.
For example, Musk has falsely claimed that 150-year-olds were receiving Social Security benefits. Experts told WIRED that DOGE likely overlooked a quirk in the payments system that doles out these benefits, which automatically sets a person’s birthday to May 20, 1875 if the real date is unknown, making these individuals appear to be 150 in the system.
The new spending restrictions apply to both SmartPay travel and purchase cards. Travel cards are widely used across the government (for example, most army reservists have these cards). The government tracks travel expenses, like hotel and airline fees, through software tools like Concur. The GSA already requires receipts for any purchase that its employees make over $75. “The system is a pain in the ass and requires authorization from a supervisor before any money can be spent,” says a current GSA employee.
Once a trip is done, employees have to submit a voucher that matches the approved expenses. Expenses are scrupulously tracked—employees are told to minimize ATM withdrawals to avoid unnecessary fees, according to a current GSA employee, who like the others in this story, spoke to WIRED on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. They say misusing a card is already grounds for disciplinary action, including termination.
Purchase cards are more rare and are used for work expenses under $10,000; anything above this amount requires a formal government contract. They’re used for office supplies, IT equipment, and trainings, among other things. If employees want to spend money on a purchase card, they have to submit a form called SF182. This form then needs to be approved and signed by a supervisor. When that’s done, the form is submitted for approval to the approving office, with the name of the person who wants to make the purchase, a description of the item, the estimated price, an accounting code, and the date when the goods or services are needed.
Once the payment is approved, it’s assigned a purchase request number. Only then can the employee actually spend money. If they spend 10 percent more than the approved amount, they need written approval again. At the GSA, each purchase is tracked through a program called Pegasys, which requires a separate form to access. Pegasys has two sides: The purchase side, which shows the money that was spent, and the reconciliation side. The card holder has to match these two sides, cent for cent, using the request number.
“To commit fraud, you’d have to have the employee, supervisor, and likely someone in finance in on it,” says another current GSA employee. “It’s not as easy as [DOGE is] claiming.”
