Credit Card Debt Management

It seems everywhere you look, the media is obsessed with the rapidly increasing value of Visa and MasterCard shares. Meanwhile, another credit card story has died down — the one about government purchase cards being abused by federal employees, allegedly for things like online dating services, lingerie and iPods. Well, now a group of federal legislators are aiming to bring the controversy back into the limelight (and, undoubtedly, increasing their own popularity among their constituents at the same time).

U.S. Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) went so far as to say employees who misuse government purchase cards “should be fired immediately and face charges.”

It makes sense, considering the “average Joe” has to face criminal punishment of some type if caught misusing a credit card belonging to another person. The Houston Chronicle, where Culberson’s comments appeared, recently shed light on the fact that NASA employees were among those who misused the federal credit cards. According to the news article:

“The problems have persisted despite at least five internal reports issued since 1997.”

An interesting development in light of the ongoing effort by House members to pass a bill authorizing extensive audits of government employee spending and ultimately holding those employees more accountable. A companion bill in the Senate has passed committee, but has not seen much action on the Senate floor in recent weeks, according to the Chronicle. Maybe (hopefully) developments like the NASA debacle will be just the motivation needed to keep the bill atop the list of priorities.