There are just some things we take for granted. Pop into a bathroom at a national park, surely you’ll find toilet paper in the stall. Right? Don’t bet on it. A new directive from the federal government says Park Service employees with government credit cards can now only charge up to $1, which seems laughable. And sometimes that toilet paper gets purchased with a Park Service credit card. Look out, there’s more involved than just TP.
Interior Department whacks Park Service credit card limits, other agencies, too
In an abrupt and surprise move, the Interior Department, which oversees the National Park Service as well as several other public lands agencies, has suspended normal spending authority and travel approvals. The news comes from documents posted by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The new edicts prevent most government purchase cards from being used for expenses more than one dollar, effectively rendering them useless.
Under the new limits, which took effect last week on February 25, for all Interior units:
- The new spending threshold limits all purchases to $1.
- The National Park Service has confined future purchase authority to one person per region, each of which includes large administrative units that often span an entire state or multiple states.
- The Bureau of Land Management has designated only two purchasers at headquarters as the “primary purchasers” for the entire agency.
“National security, public safety” exempt—but not maintenance and repair
The new restrictions make exceptions for expenditures that “support national security, public safety, and immigration enforcement.” However, these exceptions do not appear to cover purchases for maintenance and repair, for example, unless they are imminently life-threatening. Here’s a scenario: Plumbing leak develop? Can’t fix it without the parts, so just turn off the water and lock the door.
Moreover, the decision-making authority about even the most minor purchases has been removed from individual parks, refuges, and field offices and elevated to offices hundreds and, in some cases, thousands of miles away. In the interim, the only certainty appears to be uncertainty, as managers scramble for clarification as to how to apply these new rules on a day-to-day basis.
Need parts? Ask for permission from the guy several states away
According to a story carried by SFGATE, park service workers with government credit cards can purchase supplies for projects ranging from $2 to $10,000. But is there a danger in all of this? Employees using cards have always had to follow rules when using Uncle Sam’s plastic. They needed prior approval for expenses and had to file detailed receipts for them.
Now purchasing approval will have to come from remote offices. In the National Park Service Pacific West Region, only two people will have authority to allow purchases. This region oversees 65 national parks, monuments, and historic sites across eight states and three U.S. territories. It has a workforce of more than 5,000 employees.
Park Service credit card limits? One Park Service worker summed it up in comments to SFGATE: “We order all of our parts and supplies with credit cards,” said a Park Service maintenance worker, who was also granted anonymity to protect their employment. “I think the public needs to know that if they are going to visit a national park that they should bring their own toilet paper.”
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Glad to see the spending cuts… it’s about time.
I doubt very much that we will run out of toilet paper. After all, government employees have to wipe their rears too!
Seems like just another excuse to me. If not, I always carry my own.
You can use it after you use the bush to hide behind for your elimination because there won’t be any open campgrounds for you to use. Kakistocracy at its finest.
The sky is falling!
And so is everything else 🙁
Found your old Thesaurus and dusted it off?
if the moniker fits…
Common sense is once again becoming more common….! Does a bear #%@ in the woods?
Another 80/20 issue with the 20 protesting to save fraud, waste, abuse and theft.
Bob, you are 100% correct. If they run out of TP, then local park management failed, not the overall system.
What a total crap show! No pun intended.
If a Plumber had said that it would be a pun. So being a Plumber- “What a crap show”.
Two government shut-downs ago, I was in AZ. They had left the bathrooms open but no cleaning or TP. I walked into the RR with a roll (I was camping) and other people started asking me for TP. Last government shutdown (Trump) they closed the bathrooms in Denali. Because it was winter, the tourist facilities outside the Park were closed for winter. The nearest open restrooms were in Healy, 13 miles away. And yet tour operators kept bringing visitors to the Park. People were going to the bathroom BEHIND the outhouses. Someone later had to clean that up, which is disgusting and unsanitary. This really is a bad situation.
They were closed for the winter!!! Sounds like the tour operators were the problem. They just HAD to collect their money.
We visit lots of federal parks. The volunteers seem to be the ones that always clean and restock the restrooms. As long as the purchasing agent a hundred miles away orders the product, it will be fine. Everyone doesn’t need or should have an open credit card. There lies the problem.
Been there. Two guys allowed to purchase for 65 different properties. Won’t last long. Will have to set up a whole new purchasing system with more people. Two guys jobs will turn into nothing but buyers. Bathroom flush valve or faucet goes down and some guy a state away isn’t going to get it fixed very fast. Local Maintenance with a credit card will run to Ace Hardware and have it repaired before he leaves for the day. Sorry for the Maint guys, but I am sitting here just laughing and laughing. This won’t last long – it never has.
I think you’re correct Kelly. I also believe the reason all the cards went down to $1.00 limit is so they can crank them back up as needed or they would have simply shut them off and cut them up. My guess is that the plan is simply to put better controls on the cards needed so an “entire off-season” worth of TP doesn’t end up in someone’s home bathroom, along with a few other sundry items. It is about better controls and the truly needed cards getting turned back up, very soon.
If management is not doing their job, fire management, not the worker. I had 20 Building Mechs (State Govt) with cards and accounts with Big Box and ACE. I and the accounts kept track of what was being purchased. (Accounts can be set up with authorized and restricted items.) I reviewed every receipt and purchase to make sure the items were necessary and authorized. If not, the mechanic had to pay up for a bad purchase. Those who screwed up learned fast. Purchasing and Accts Payable also breathed down my neck.
State V Fed.
I don’t completely disagree tho, fire all the managers that won’t fire the workers that steal public money. National Park manager or Cabinet Secretary, the same principle applies. Theft is a crime…. um, except in California….
Happy trails Kelly. 😎✌️
Just out of curiosity, Kelly, did your state Procurement organization have business volume discounts in place with these suppliers so they were getting a much better price than Joe off the street? If so, and the cards were tied to ONLY purchasing items within the contract terms, then having cards can be an effective tool, for real emergency needs. If not, it’s a very expensive solution requiring a lot of human oversight time.
We went out to bid or get quotes on most everything we would purchase – toilet paper for instance – and would get it in by the truck load – mattress, furniture, cleaning supplies etc. All went out to bid each year. For plumbing, electrical and nuts and bolts we would get quotes from such suppliers. The maint guys had cards to pick up a strange sized bolt, a bathroom faucet or something that needed to be fixed NOW. My card was used to buy lumber and tarps, in the middle of the night, to secure a building that had caught on fire, as an example. Emergencies.
While my faith in government is very limited, done correctly, the new process is entirely workable. But local units crying won’t help. Local park management needs to understand a park’s needs and think ahead. They need to have some items on hand.
Folks, our Gov’t goes T$ further in debt every year. The federal debt net of financial assets reached $25.9 trillion by the end of fiscal year 2024 and led to $892 billion in interest payments in 2024. Getting out of the cycle won’t be painless. Not getting out of it a disaster.
I agree with having parts on hand, but what I have found in government cutbacks is that the bean counters first cut back on having parts on hand because they see it as being money just sitting on the shelves.
On your previous from today;, I agree on firing the managers…. the ones not firing workers for cause, including thievery of public money in the form of credit card usage. Managers of Parks, managers of departments or managers of agencies. Once we have management of all agencies, parks and departments willing to fire, then they can fire. If unwilling, well…. your fired.
It probably takes 12 hours of work in the private sector to remit enough taxes to cover a 12 pack of stolen TP and the hour for the thief to steal it.
Anybody out there really want to work a day and a half to cover some losers AWipe?
Happy trails Kelly. 😎✌️
Kelly,
I will add that it’s ALL federal Credit cards, not just a bunch of park employees. I would surmise that most park employees are doing a great job and very little theft is present. However, with hundreds of billions of dollars in checks issued from the treasury with nothing written in the memo line for what or where it went and nothing in a ledger or chart of accounts, it simply has to be a top to bottom overhaul.
As well, States run way better than federal. They have to balance budgets, have more caring employees and are tiny by comparison. Add in that they can’t print money like the feds and boom, better run.
Now be careful, Kelly. The other eight years of my career was Accounting and Finance! 🤣🤣🤣
Having been a “bean counter” (man, that term is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me) I was given edicts from above and measured on implementation and compliance even though my only authority over the line organizations I supported was begging. Always two sides! 😉🙂
You are correct, the bean counters are not the financial people. Bean Counters are the ones who look at the financials and do not understand what they mean or the goal of the organization and then make dumb decisions. No offense to those who keep the books and look out for the financial health of the business.
The national debt rose by 8.18 trillion dollars (40.43%) 2017 to 2021. 2021 to 2024, 6.17 trillion (21.71%). The current administration is calling to extend the 2017 tax cuts they implemented. The projected impact is a decrease in federal tax revenue by 4.5 trillion from 2025 to 2034 with a marginal 16% offset of the revenue loss by GDP growth.
What a circus.
A Supply Chain “circus” is apparently what they had. I have credentials and decades of large scale supply chain experience. What are your credentials in this area of expertise, Ron? Please enlighten us.
Boom
I would like to offer a different take on this. Federal Gov. credit card usage in 2024 was $40 billion or $3,400,000,000 per month. The average fee for credit card acceptance from the seller of merchandise is 3% or $1,200,000,000.00 that the banks made in 2024 from Fed Gov CC purchases.
Seems like a little Collusion between the banks and the Feds for the majority the purchases which could be made using a purchasing system, other than last minute CC usage. Does not factor in fraudulent purchases ie: lunches, drinks, rooms, sundry items for home by Federal employees.
Just sayin. Happy trails everyone. 😎✌️
Thank you for the update, Russ and Tina! Federal credit card rules were byzantine throughout my 20+-year career. Some employees were required to apply for a credit card while others were not. Pre-approval was required before use. The employee was required to remain current in paying the federal credit card balance. Subsequently the employee submitted receipts in a timely manner in order to be reimbursed. It was all nonsensical. I was required to have one yet never used it. Returning it was part of my check-out when I retired. It is best to make no effort to understand the process; merely follow the rules. 😉 Have a great day and safe travels!
Sounds like the definition of a bureaucracy.
Yes, certainly could be, Michelle Traynor. In fact, one of my colleagues, possibly in response to the absurdness of many rules governing our behavior, printed “Beaurucrat” and taped it over his name plate. Safe travels!
Neal, thank you for giving us a former gov’t employee’s view that is quite different than we usually hear. You could immediately bristle and be defensive to protect your former employer, but you just tell it as you saw and experienced it. 👍
You are very welcome, Mikal! Yes, lots made no sense given my circumstances. On some level probably was an effort to make “one size fit all,” which is doomed to create some ridiculous situations. Thankfully, I was enough of a peon that I was largely left to do my assigned work and never (once in 24 years) travel. 🙂
I spent 30 years of my 38 year career in a major multi-national in Global Supply Chain. I am a Lifetime Certified Supply Chain Manager by the Institute for Supply Chain Management.
I could write books about supply chain wasteful spending and how giving thousands of small local units of your operation purchasing authority is a recipe for disaster that costs B$.
Russ and Tina: Disappointed you only spewed out one side of this issue to garner attention and apparently did no digging into standard, normal, large supply chain practices to see the other side of the story.
There’s a story that goes before the reduction to $1 limit took place. And it’s not over-thriftiness . . . Just another ‘rare’ massive fraud and abuse story connected to government spending. The sun will still come up tomorrow.
I worked for the Army, employees credit card purchases were reviewed and employees had to justify their purchases. If used for unlawful purchases, employees would be disciplined or fired. Employees were also required to pay the government credit cards on time or be disciplined. Everyone blames the government employees instead of blaming our politicians and upper management. Very few people complain about money giving to foreign countries. Many hated us. While many Americans are hungry, can’t afford medical care/ medicine and housing, many didn’t complain about Biden’s spending when in office. When we get thru the present administration and republicans are out, Wild spending will occur again.
When does a government employee purchase TP with a credit card? If this is true it would cost several hundred dollars per roll. Supplies are purchased through a contracted supplier and purchased in bulk. If a park service employee is driving to a store to get TP on a credit card they would do it in the most inefficient way possible, and take as much time as possible to do it. This does not happen, credit cards are used mostly for expenses that are very small and not reoccurring. The dishonest reporting of every small thing is really disheartening.
No therapeutic paper…surely you jest!
I suspect there is more to this story than indicated. Government credit cards are ubiquitous and often misused.