The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has suspended almost half a million government credit cards in use by federal officials.

The task force, headed by billionaire Elon Musk, said it had deactivated cards used by more than 30 agencies as part of its crackdown on government spending.

The Context

On returning to office in January, President Donald Trump created DOGE via an executive order to reduce the size the federal workforce and cut government spending by eliminating waste and inefficiency. The task force has since recommended the firing of more than 200,000 federal workers, and 75,000 workers have accepted the Trump administration’s offer to voluntarily resign.

What To Know

On Tuesday, DOGE wrote on X, formerly Twitter—the social media platform Musk owns—that it had deactivated about 470,000 credit cards in its crackdown on federal spending.

“Credit Card Update! The program to audit unused/unneeded credit cards has been expanded to 30 agencies. After 7 weeks, ~470k cards have been de-activated. As a reminder, at the start of the audit, there were ~4.6M active cards/accounts, so still more work to do,” the post said.

Credit Cards A stock image of credit cards. Getty Images
In March, DOGE said it had suspended 200,000 unneeded credit cards across 16 agencies. According to the task force, there are 4.6 million government credit cards, which totaled $40 billion in spending last year.

Cuts of these kind have previously had unintended effects on federal authorities. For example, when cuts were made to the Transportation Security Administration’s cards last month, officials were temporarily unable to make purchases to support bomb-sniffing dog units.

“Credit card purchases have been restricted for 30 days,” a TSA spokesperson told Newsweek, “but Canine operations have not been adversely affected by this effort.”

What People Are Saying

Elon Musk, the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, wrote on X on Wednesday: “Twice as many credit cards are issued and active than the total number of government employees! Crazy.”

Michael Ryan, a finance expert and the founder of MichaelRyanMoney.com, previously told Newsweek: “These aren’t your typical consumer credit cards. We’re looking at lifelines for federal agencies—cards that keep the lights on, quite literally. Need to book a last-minute flight for a critical meeting? There’s a card for that. Emergency maintenance part for a military vehicle? Yep, another card. Office supplies for a research lab working on something that could change the world? You guessed it—another card.”

What Happens Next

DOGE has said it will continue to make cuts to the government credit card system by expanding the number of agencies included in the audit for the next round.