The effects have also affected the National Park Service. An employee was ready to travel to supervise the maintenance of the road at a National Monument when the change came into effect on 20 February. “Unless I want to pay for it myself, I can't go, I can't pay for my hotel, my rental car, fuel for the car. Now I cannot implement the mission, “says the employee. “Today, instead of concentrating on other work, I am focused on three different unforeseen events about how to deal with this. Am I going? Do I call my engineering team and tell them that they have to resist? And if so, when? The project has an indefinite hold. “
A memo written to staff of the National Park Service indicated that “all journeys that are not related to national security, public safety or immigration enforcement must be canceled if it starts on Wednesday 26 February to the end of March 2025.” A long -term decision about the travel policy will be “at a later time”. Some NPS employees were able to travel in February, even though they did not receive official approval. They are now told that no trips were allowed in March. To date, around 75 trips have been canceled or re -planned, according to a source that is familiar with the situation.
The National Park Service did not respond to a request for comments from Wired.
Some government employees say they received a warning before the change was announced on 20 February. “We bought things and fallen from toilet paper the night before,” says another current employee of the National Park Service. “There is a general recognition that will break things.”
That employee works in the Pacific West region, which manages federal land in California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada, as well as parks in Arizona, Montana, Guam and American Samoa. Although the GSA made the possibility of exceptions to the clamp-down, the employee claims that there are only four purchase cards with spending limits above $ 1 available for the entire region.
Some of these parks pay for services such as the internet and wireless on purchase cards – delivering employees wonder whether their work equipment can be cut off soon. “Before someone can repair a bathroom, a work order must be issued,” the current employee explains. “That happens electronically. Like every company, we trust e -mail, teams and chat to get things done. “
The spending limits reflect the faith of Musk in zero -based budgeting. After he bought Twitter, he reduced the budget to zero and forced employees to justify all costs. He also froze the business credit cards of people.
“With the Twitter break of payments, at one point we were on a Saturday at 1 am, and it was like:” Hey, let's disable the credit cards to see what bounces, and what happens, “Angel investor Jason Calacanis from Jason Calacanis explained. The biggest gragging. “
Employees see it a different way. “There are so many controls to ensure that fraud does not happen,” claims the current NPS employee. “I really believe that the only fraud that occurs is committed by Musk, [Russell] Fought, and [Donald] Trump. “
Kate Knibbs and Aarian Marshall have contributed to this report.
