More Than 200,000 Government Credit Cards Deactivated: DOGE

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) said more than 200,000 government credit cards linked to a handful of federal agencies were canceled after an audit showed they were not being used.

Last month, DOGE said in a statement that it found more than 4.6 million government credit cards that accounted for more than 90 million unique transactions amounting to more than $40 billion. 

On Monday evening, the Elon Musk-led agency said that more than 200,000 were deactivated.

“Weekly Credit Card Update! Pilot program with 16 agencies to audit unused/unneeded credit cards,” DOGE wrote on its X account, adding that “great progress” was made at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of the Interior.

Noting the 4.6 million credit card discovery last month, DOGE wrote that there is “still more work to do.” The post didn’t say what DOGE will target next.

In February’s statement, DOGE provided details about what agencies are using credit cards and how much they’ve spent, with the Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Homeland Security, General Services Administration, and U.S. Department of Agriculture having the most transactions.

The Department of Veterans Affairs spent the most at more than $17.3 billion, while the Defense Department spent more than $11.2 billion, according to a spreadsheet posted by DOGE for Fiscal Year 2024.

“DOGE is working [with] the agencies to simplify the program and reduce admin costs,” the group said in a statement on X.

The specific numbers outlined by the General Services Administration (GSA) for fiscal year 2024 include $39.7 billion in “total program” spending and $506 million in refunds earned by agencies and organizations. GSA also notes that $441 was spent on average for each transaction.

DOGE’s statement on March 10 comes as lawsuits and judgments targeting it continue to pile up. On the same day, a federal judge wrote that the auditing commission must release public records related to its operations.

Since it was created via an executive order in January by President Donald Trump, DOGE has gone from agency to agency and has identified spending as well as programs to be slashed.

In Monday’s ruling, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington sided with a left-leaning government watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, in finding that DOGE likely must comply with the Freedom of Information Act.

Opposing the motion, government lawyers said DOGE is not subject to FOIA because it is part of the Executive Office of the President, but that they would outline their arguments later in the case.

Court precedent dictates that entities within the Executive Office of the President are only subject to FOIA if they have “wielded substantial authority independently of the President.”

Cooper ruled that DOGE has, saying that Trump signed an order creating DOGE and enabling it to implement his cost-cutting agenda.

Cooper wrote that DOGE “appears to have the power not just to evaluate federal programs, but to drastically reshape and even eliminate them wholesale.”

Over the weekend, DOGE said in a statement on X that it discovered some $312 million in loans that were allegedly given out to children aged 11 and younger during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“While it is possible to have business arrangements where this is legal, that is highly unlikely for these 5,593 loans, as they all also used [a Social Security number] with the incorrect name,” the post reads.