Braxton Taylor
Amid mass firings, the Pentagon has effectively put a halt on the use of travel and purchasing credit cards by its civilian employees and ordered any workers currently traveling to return as soon as possible, according to a pair of memos issued this week.
One memo puts a $1 limit on the government cards, which renders them mostly useless and will likely bar employees from making a wide range of purchases related to work with the Defense Department. The restrictions come as the Pentagon is firing 5,400 civilian employees — with plans to reduce its workforce by 5% to 8% as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing effort to dramatically remake the government.
Workers at agencies across the federal government have been hit with the government charge card cap at the behest of billionaire Elon Musk, who is also firing tens of thousands of other federal employees and slashing agencies through his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, with the blessing of President Donald Trump. The president ordered cost-cutting measures for government employees in an executive order on Feb. 26.
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The Pentagon’s acting head of acquisition and sustainment, Steven Morani, issued the memo ordering the virtual halt in the use of government purchase cards by civilian employees.
In that memo, the Pentagon temporarily reduced the spending limit to $1 on all government purchase cards, which are normally used to streamline purchasing things as basic as office supplies to items as expensive as $10,000.
“The use of government-issued [government purchase card] accounts to fund activities initiated on or before Feb. 26, 2025, will cease as soon as feasible within the bounds of law,” the memo read.
It is not immediately clear what impact the cap on charges will have on Pentagon operations.
The purchase card memo does make exemptions for “disaster relief or natural disaster response benefits or operations, or other critical services,” or on existing contracts that remain active until April 9.
Another memo — this time from Darin Selnick, who is performing the duties of under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness — restricting travel for civilian workers came a day after the restriction on government charge cards.
“Effective immediately, the use of all government-issued travel charge cards by DoD civilian employees is suspended for all travel that is not exempted,” Selnick’s memos says.
The only exemption, according to that memo, is for “direct support of military operations or a permanent change of station,” known as a PCS move.
It is not clear what the broader impact of the new travel ban will be or how much money it would save the department. Musk’s DOGE has claimed widespread savings as it hacks its way through the federal government, but many of the claims have been inaccurate or unsupported.
On Monday, the Pentagon’s top spokesman said that Musk’s team of aides, who were recently granted access to the department, had made cuts that “probably” saved $80 million but only provided examples that support $13 million in cuts — a minuscule fraction of the department’s roughly $840 billion annual budget.
Some effects of Musk cuts have already been seen.
Military.com has learned that civilian workers in at least four agencies — the Defense Health Agency, Defense Logistics Agency, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, and the Navy — were fired this week.
“Gosh, it was insanely impersonal. We were not allowed the opportunity to ask questions, nothing. It was basically, ‘Here it is. You have questions? Ask your supervisors,’ who were also in the dark, by the way,” said one DHA employee, who requested anonymity out of hope that she may be reinstated.
In another example, Hill Air Force Base in Utah is scaling back its child development centers due to the Trump and Musk job cuts, meaning Gold Star spouses and other defense employees were expected to lose child care as soon as this week.
Military.com reported Tuesday that the Air and Space Forces Association Warfare Symposium in Aurora, Colorado — one of just two major professional development conferences for the two services — had noticeably lower attendance than in previous years.
Officials confirmed to Military.com that Trump’s order was behind the decreased numbers and that they limited attendance to only people who had a “direct role” in the conference in order to comply with “the spirit of the president’s executive order.”
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