I 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 216 
To prevent abuse of Government credit cards. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 6, 2009 
Mr. WILSON of South Carolina (for himself and Mr. ELLSWORTH) introduced 
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and 
Government Reform, and in addition to the Committee on Armed Serv-
ices, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each 
case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of 
the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To prevent abuse of Government credit cards. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Government Credit 
Card Abuse Prevention Act of 2009’’. 
SEC. 2. MANAGEMENT OF PURCHASE CARDS. 
(a) REQUIRED SAFEGUARDS AND INTERNAL CON-
TROLS.—The head of each executive agency that issues 
and uses purchase cards and convenience checks shall es-
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tablish and maintain safeguards and internal controls to 
ensure the following: 
(1) There is a record in each executive agency 
of each holder of a purchase card issued by the 
agency for official use, annotated with the limita-
tions on single transaction and total credit amounts 
that are applicable to the use of each such card by 
that purchase cardholder. 
(2) Each purchase card holder is assigned an 
approving official other than the card holder with 
the authority to approve or disapprove expenditures. 
(3) The holder of a purchase card and each of-
ficial with authority to authorize expenditures 
charged to the purchase card are responsible for— 
(A) reconciling the charges appearing on 
each statement of account for that purchase 
card with receipts and other supporting docu-
mentation; and 
(B) forwarding such reconciliation to the 
designated official who certifies the bill for pay-
ment in a timely manner. 
(4) Any disputed purchase card charge, and 
any discrepancy between a receipt and other sup-
porting documentation and the purchase card state-
ment of account, is resolved in the manner pre-
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scribed in the applicable Governmentwide purchase 
card contract entered into by the Administrator of 
General Services. 
(5) Payments on purchase card accounts are 
made promptly within prescribed deadlines to avoid 
interest penalties. 
(6) Rebates and refunds based on prompt pay-
ment on purchase card accounts are monitored for 
accuracy and properly recorded as a receipt to the 
agency that pays the monthly bill. 
(7) Records of each purchase card transaction 
(including records on associated contracts, reports, 
accounts, and invoices) are retained in accordance 
with standard Government policies on the disposition 
of records. 
(8) Periodic reviews are performed to determine 
whether each purchase cardholder has a need for the 
purchase card. 
(9) Appropriate training is provided to each 
purchase cardholder and each official with responsi-
bility for overseeing the use of purchase cards issued 
by an executive agency. 
(10) The executive agency has specific policies 
regarding the number of purchase cards issued by 
various organizations and categories of organiza-
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tions, the credit limits authorized for various cat-
egories of cardholders, and categories of employees 
eligible to be issued purchase cards, and that those 
policies are designed to minimize the financial risk 
to the Federal Government of the issuance of the 
purchase cards and to ensure the integrity of pur-
chase cardholders. 
(11) The executive agency utilizes technologies 
to prevent or identify fraudulent purchases, includ-
ing controlling merchant codes and utilizing statis-
tical machine learning and pattern recognition tech-
nologies that review the risk of every transaction. 
(12) The executive agency invalidates the pur-
chase card of each employee who— 
(A) ceases to be employed by the agency 
immediately upon termination of the employ-
ment of the employee; or 
(B) transfers to another unit of the agency 
immediately upon the transfer of the employee. 
(13) The executive agency takes steps to re-
cover the cost of any improper or fraudulent pur-
chase made by an employee, including, as necessary, 
through salary offsets. 
(b) MANAGEMENT OF PURCHASE CARDS.—The head 
of each executive agency shall prescribe regulations imple-
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menting the safeguards and internal controls in subsection 
(a). The regulations shall be consistent with regulations 
that apply Governmentwide regarding the use of purchase 
cards by Government personnel for official purposes. 
(c) PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS.—The regulations 
prescribed under subsection (b) shall provide for appro-
priate adverse personnel actions or other punishment to 
be imposed in cases in which employees of an executive 
agency violate such regulations or are negligent or engage 
in misuse, abuse, or fraud with respect to a purchase card, 
including imposition of the following penalties: 
(1) In the case of an employee who is suspected 
by the executive agency to have engaged in fraud, 
referral of the case to the United States Attorney 
with jurisdiction over the matter. 
(2) In the case of an employee who is found 
guilty of fraud or found by the executive agency to 
have egregiously abused a purchase card, dismissal 
of the employee. 
(d) RISK ASSESSMENTS AND AUDITS.—The Inspec-
tor General of each executive agency shall— 
(1) periodically conduct risk assessments of the 
agency purchase card program and associated inter-
nal controls and analyze identified weaknesses and 
the frequency of improper activity in order to de-
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velop a plan for using such risk assessments to de-
termine the scope, frequency, and number of peri-
odic audits of purchase cardholders; 
(2) perform periodic audits of purchase card-
holders designed to identify— 
(A) potentially fraudulent, improper, and 
abusive uses of purchase cards; 
(B) any patterns of improper cardholder 
transactions, such as purchases of prohibited 
items; and 
(C) categories of purchases that should be 
made by means other than purchase cards in 
order to better aggregate purchases and obtain 
lower prices; 
(3) report to the head of the executive agency 
concerned on the results of such audits; and 
(4) report to the Director of the Office of Man-
agement and Budget and the Comptroller General 
on the implementation of recommendations made to 
the head of the executive agency to address findings 
during audits of purchase cardholders. 
(e) DEFINITION OF EXECUTIVE AGENCY.—In this 
section, the term ‘‘executive agency’’ has the meaning 
given such term in section 4(1) of the Office of Federal 
Procurement Policy Act (41 U.S.C. 403(1)). 
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(f) RELATIONSHIP TO DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE 
PURCHASE CARD REGULATIONS.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided by the 
amendments made by paragraph (2), the require-
ments under this section shall not apply to the De-
partment of Defense. 
(2) EXCEPTION.—Section 2784(b) of title 10, 
United States Code, is amended— 
(A) in paragraph (8), by striking ‘‘periodic 
audits’’ and all that follows through the period 
at the end and inserting ‘‘risk assessments of 
the agency purchase card program and associ-
ated internal controls and analyze identified 
weaknesses and the frequency of improper ac-
tivity in order to develop a plan for using such 
risk assessments to determine the scope, fre-
quency, and number of periodic audits of pur-
chase cardholders.’’; and 
(B) by adding at the end the following new 
paragraphs: 
‘‘(11) That the Department of Defense utilizes 
technologies to prevent or identify fraudulent pur-
chases, including controlling merchant codes and uti-
lizing statistical machine learning and pattern rec-
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ognition technologies that review the risk of every 
transaction. 
‘‘(12) That the Secretary of Defense— 
‘‘(A) invalidates the purchase card of each 
employee who ceases to be employed by the De-
partment of Defense immediately upon termi-
nation of the employment of the employee; and 
‘‘(B) invalidates the purchase card of each 
employee who transfers to another agency or 
subunit within the Department of Defense im-
mediately upon such transfer.’’. 
SEC. 3. MANAGEMENT OF TRAVEL CARDS. 
Section 2 of the Travel and Transportation Reform 
Act of 1998 (Public Law 105–264; 5 U.S.C. 5701 note) 
is amended by adding at the end the following new sub-
section: 
‘‘(h) MANAGEMENT OF TRAVEL CHARGE CARDS.— 
‘‘(1) REQUIRED
SAFEGUARDS
AND
INTERNAL 
CONTROLS.—The head of each executive agency that 
has employees that use travel charge cards shall es-
tablish and maintain safeguards and internal con-
trols over travel charge cards to ensure the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(A) There is a record in each executive 
agency of each holder of a travel charge card 
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el charge cards and to ensure the integrity of 
travel charge cardholders. 
‘‘(F) The head of each executive agency 
negotiates with the holder of the applicable 
travel card contract, or a third party provider 
of credit evaluations if such provider offers 
more favorable terms, to evaluate the credit-
worthiness of an individual before issuing the 
individual a travel charge card, and that no in-
dividual be issued a travel charge card if the in-
dividual is found not creditworthy as a result of 
the evaluation (except that this paragraph shall 
not preclude issuance of a restricted use travel 
charge card when the individual lacks a credit 
history or the issuance of a pre-paid card when 
the individual has a credit score below the min-
imum credit score established by the agency). 
Each executive agency shall establish a min-
imum credit score for determining the credit-
worthiness of an individual based on rigorous 
statistical analysis of the population of card-
holders and historical behaviors. Notwith-
standing any other provision of law, such eval-
uation shall include an assessment of an indi-
vidual’s consumer report from a consumer re-
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