President Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order aimed at expanding the influence of Elon Musk’s government cost-cutting program, colloquially referred to as the “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE.

The new directive mandates a “transformation” in federal expenditure on contracts, grants, and loans by obliging agencies to establish a central system for documenting and justifying payments, with potential public disclosure for transparency – an initiative under the oversight of Musk’s team.

“This order initiates a transformation in federal spending on contracts, grants, and loans to ensure government expenses are transparent, and public servants are answerable to the American people,” the directive states.

The order instructs the DOGE team lead in each agency to furnish monthly reports detailing contracting activities, including justifications for payments and travel; law enforcement, military, immigration agencies, and national security-related activities are exempt from these new requirements.

The order is part of a wider White House campaign to drastically downsize the federal bureaucratic workforce, which the Trump administration portrays as a hindrance to implementing its extensive agenda. On Wednesday, the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management issued a seven-page memo instructing agency leaders to formulate plans for “large-scale reductions” by 13 March, according to the Associated Press.

“We’re going to reduce the size of the government. We have to,” Trump stated earlier on Wednesday during the first cabinet meeting of his second term. “We’re bloated. We’re lax. There are many individuals not performing their duties.”

The administration has already begun the process of terminating thousands of probationary employees, unprotected by civil service safeguards. The Environmental Protection Agency is reported to cut up to 65% of its workforce, with employees at the Department of Labor and the Social Security Administration reportedly anticipating drastic downsizing.

At the cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Musk admitted that DOGE has made some errors in its swift approach to downsizing and, on occasion, attempting to dismantle agencies. He recognized that DOGE “won’t be perfect,” including instances where it “accidentally” canceled an Ebola prevention effort that the tech mogul insisted was promptly reinstated “without interruption.”

A US Agency for International Development (USAid) official disputed Musk’s assertion, informing the AP that agency resources for Ebola response had not been unfrozen since Trump halted international aid last month.

Under the new DOGE-inspired executive order, the General Services Administration is tasked with submitting within 60 days a plan for divesting any government real estate “deemed by the agency to be no longer necessary.”

The directive also enforces a 30-day freeze on all government-issued credit cards, effective immediately, except for use in disaster relief and other critical services, unless a supervisor grants an exemption. Federally funded travel for conferences and other “non-essential” purposes will be subject to enhanced reporting requirements.