President Donald Trump’s edict last week freezing government employee credit card use for work-related expenses has forced some agencies to scramble to comply while maintaining normal operations, according to a government watchdog group.
A report issued Tuesday by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, or PEER, targets Trump’s executive order, issued last week, that mostly addressed spending on federal contracts and grants, but also called for clamping down on travel expenses and other issues.
Trump’s order includes a section titled “Credit Card Freeze” that pauses use of the government-issued cards for 30 days and calls for the creation of a centralized system to approve purchases. While there are exemptions on the freeze for public safety “or other critical services,” it has caused major problems with day-to-day operations for Interior’s National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management, according to PEER.
“It looks like the Trump administration is monkeywrenching government by needlessly disrupting even basic operations,” stated Rocky Mountain PEER Director Chandra Rosenthal. “The individual Interior agencies, such as the National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management, have been taken by surprise and are themselves grasping for additional guidance.”
