(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Joni Ernst says it’s time to impose more oversight of the credit cards federal employees use to make purchases and manage transactions for government agencies. “In March, the federal government held about 4.6 million active purchase cards and accounts,” Ernst said, “with $40 billion of spending on those cards last year.” An inspector general’s report issued in August found 32 employees in the U.S. Department of Energy had potentially misused government credit cards for about 15-thousand dollars in travel expenses.

Ernst says another evaluation found 11-thousand charges at high-risk merchants like casinos and bars. “I can’t really see where we can see government credits being used in those types of establishments,” Ernst said, “so I don’t know, you know, what kind of government work is going on there.” Ernst says the government should work with the companies that issue credit cards and activate trigger mechanisms, so if a card is used at a high-risk establishment, the charge would be declined. In February, President Trump issued an executive order that froze almost all agency employee credit cards with the exception of those who used them for what are considered critical services.

This summer, the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE (DOHJ) announced it had deactivated over half a million credit cards issued to government agencies and employees.