On February 26, 2025, the Trump administration issued an executive order freezing spending on government-issued credit cards. The 30-day freeze excludes spending to address natural disasters and other undefined “critical services”, but exceptions must be approved by the appropriate agency head “in consultation with the agency’s DOGE Team Lead.”
The spending hold will potentially affect necessary purchases for clinical or laboratory work, and could also affect travel to meetings and conferences. Despite the lifting of a travel ban for National Institutes of Health (NIH) employees, the new executive order specifically prohibits agency employees from “engaging in federally funded travel for conferences … [absent] a brief, written justification.” According to a senior scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the high bar for exceptions will “essentially eliminate[]” travel to conferences.