Sen. Ernst pushes to stop Pentagon credit card fraud
Earlier this year, an audit conducted by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) exposed an eye-popping $40 billion in annual expenditures throughout the government on 4.6 million credit cards - a number that's nearly twice the number of active federal employees. Thousands of the transactions unearthed in a separate report by the Pentagon's inspector general occurred at 'high-risk locations' including casino ATMs, bars and nightclubs.
'After exposing sweeping abuse of government credit cards, I am chopping up the Pentagon 's plastic,' Ernst told the Daily Mail. 'From casinos to bars and much more, bureaucrats have been swiping away and sending the American people the check.'
Ernst's office was unable to confirm when her measure could receive a vote before the full Senate body and provisions like these often get stripped out or risk being voted down during last minute negotiations to get the must-pass legislation over the finish line. The Senate version of the NDAA has passed out of the Armed Services Committee, and the House is scheduled to vote on their version of the bill Thursday afternoon.
The Senate did not achieve final passage of last year's NDAA until mid-December. Slashing waste, fraud, and abuse has been top of mind for Republicans in Washington since President Trump reclaimed the White White House and greenlit an agency tasked with slashing the federal bureaucracy, and Erst has been eager to align herself with the president's objectives as she contemplates a re-election bid in 2026. But her provision only covers the Pentagon, not the broader $40 billion problem plaguing all agencies.
'Washington insiders wouldn't leave their own old credit cards floating around, and there is no reason why they should treat taxpayer-funded credit cards with less responsibility,' Ernst concluded. Some of the bad actors have been identified as part of ongoing investigations. In 2020, a Texas National Guardsman was sentenced to two years in federal prison and ordered to repay over $75,000 after it was uncovered that he used 'General Services Administration and Department of Defense 'fleet cards' to purchase fuel and maintenance for government vehicles.'
Other similar instances of fraud are decades old, showing that misuse of government-issued credit cards has been a pervasive problem. In 2005, an ex-US Army recruiter was arrested for using a 'stolen card to purchase gasoline, automotive parts and food for his personal use and consumption in excess of $13,000.'
A 2002 report by the Government Accountability Office noted that a 'Fort Benning military cardholder charged $30,000 for personal goods and cash advances before and after retirement.' The same report also said that the individual tasked with approving the charges only acted as a 'rubber stamp' and failed to notice the cardholder retired.
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