The $1 limit imposed by the Donald Trump administration on the initiative of American entrepreneur and head of the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Elon Musk on government credit card spending has effectively paralyzed the work of U.S. federal agencies.
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DOGE has set a $1 spending limit for government credit card officials in at least four U.S. federal agencies. According to the portal’s sources, the limit was supposed to apply to all government departments.
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“The ban on the use of credit cards imposed by DOGE delays the delivery of critical goods, disrupts business trips and prevents employees from doing their jobs… The consequences are already widely felt,” experts say.
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According to the portal, restrictions have already affected the work of agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Park Service (NPS), the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
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As a result of the new regulations, the FDA laboratories are experiencing shortages of basic supplies, which slows down the analysis of food and drug samples. Vaccine research has been suspended at the NIH (National Institutes of Health) because employees are unable to purchase the necessary reagents. The agencies responsible for aviation safety faced difficulties in financing field inspections and equipment testing.
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“The longer this failure continues, the more the system collapses,” a USDA employee, who stressed that in some cases employees are no longer able to perform their basic functions, said.
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In addition, employees of federal agencies are forced to exchange laboratory materials within institutions, and some projects to maintain the infrastructure of national parks and ensure the safety of air travel have been frozen due to the inability to pay for travel expenses.
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Earlier, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, said that DOGE had revealed “shocking” expenses of the American government that had not received congressional approval. The current US Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, also stated that the federal spending of the American government has reached unprecedented levels in peacetime, and the budget deficit is 6.8-7% of GDP. He called the current state of US financial policy “out of control” and expressed concern about possible consequences.
