President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order that requires federal workers to justify their travel expenses and make them available to the public in another move to increase transparency and cut government waste.
On Wednesday, the nation’s 47th president directed agency heads to work with Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team leads to build a “centralized technological system within the agency to seamlessly record every payment” for contracts and grants with a “brief, written justification for each payment submitted by the agency employee who approved the payment.”
NEW: President Trump just signed an executive order to further reign in government waste and officially implement @DOGE‘s cost efficiency initiative.
Here is the text of the order:
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United…
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 26, 2025
Non-essential travel will also be scrutinized with agency heads and DOGE Team leads instructed to “build a technological system within each agency that centrally records approval for federally funded travel for conferences and other non-essential purposes,” with the information provided to the public when possible.
“Once an agency’s system is in place, the Agency Head shall prohibit agency employees from engaging in federally funded travel for conferences or other non-essential purposes unless the travel-approving official has submitted a brief, written justification for the federally funded travel within such system,” the order reads.
The order, titled “Implementing the president’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ cost efficiency initiative,” also freezes government credit cards for 30 days in a clampdown on out-of-control spending by entitled bureaucrats.
“To the maximum extent permitted by law, all credit cards held by agency employees shall be treated as frozen for 30 days from the date of this order,” reads the section of the EO on the credit car freeze which excepts those held by “employees utilizing such credit cards for disaster relief or natural disaster response benefits or operations or other critical services as determined by the Agency Head.”
Additionally, the executive order addresses unused or unoccupied federal real estate that is a drain on the taxpayers and directs heads of agencies to inform the General Services Administration which government buildings under lease and properties are no longer needed.
“Within 30 days of the date of this order, each Agency Head shall promptly identify all termination rights the Agency Head may have under existing leases of Government-owned real property and, in consultation with agency’s DOGE Team Lead and the Administrator of General Services or his designee, determine whether to exercise such rights,” the section on leased property reads.
“Within 60 days of the date of this order, the Administrator of General Services shall submit a plan to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for the disposition of Government-owned real property which has been deemed by the agency as no longer needed,” according to the section on real estate property.
The order further empowers DOGE at a time when Democrats and the media are losing their minds over Musk’s request that federal employees reply to an email with a brief list of five things that they accomplished last week. It was something that is a regular aspect of work in Corporate America, but is apparently too much for pampered and privileged government workers who have an outsized sense of entitlement and little respect for the American taxpayers who are forced to pay their salaries.
According to DOGE’s official website, it has already saved taxpayers $65 billion in just over one month since Trump took office.
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