Congressional offices grapple with frozen charge cards, lapsed subscriptions as shutdown drags on

'Some of your more junior staff are probably going to be feeling the heat'

WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 28: Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) talks with reporters in the hallway outside his office following a news conference on the 28th day of the federal government shutdown at the U.S. Capitol on October 28, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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Members of Congress are used to dysfunction. But as the shutdown drags on, the breakdown has become operational: some House offices can’t pay for Dropbox, MailChimp, or YouTube TV, according to staffers. Office charge cards are frozen, software subscriptions are lapsing, and staffers say they’re covering expenses on personal credit cards and hope they’ll be paid back.

Committee and member office credit cards have been frozen, according to a senior House staffer familiar with the situation, cutting off access to tools used for everything from constituent communications and press releases to virtual media appearances.

“The charge cards that committees and member offices have are not working right now, so oftentimes you’ll see those used on a monthly or annualized basis to buy MailChimp account, Canva accounts, Twitter once a year, premium stuff like that,” the staffer said. “So that’s a problem.”

The workaround creates its own issues. The staffer described having to purchase audio overlay software on a personal card to create social media content. While staffers will likely be reimbursed once appropriations are enacted, there’s no guarantee.

“Someone is going to have to incur the expense on their own with their personal card and then seek reimbursement after and they should get it,” the staffer said. “But you know, there’s no technical guarantee.”

Members’ charge cards still work for travel expenses related to official functions, but all staff and committee cards are shut down.

The financial pressure is particularly acute for junior staffers, who are paid just once a month on the last business day.

“Some of your more junior staff are probably going to be feeling the heat,” the staffer said. “In the house, we only get paid once a month, and it’s the last business of the month...you might see some more of these junior staff really starting to sweat a little bit.”

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One senior GOP aide painted a stark picture: “We can’t hire staff and soon we won’t be able to pay simple bills to send a simple press release. If you think Congress doesn’t ‘work’ now, wait until they can’t use any of the services they normally pay for and junior staff have to quit to go bartend in order to pay their rent.”

The hiring freeze compounds the problem—offices can’t bring on new staff or replace employees who leave, creating a potential brain drain as junior staffers face mounting financial pressure.

Beyond the financial strain, congressional work itself has ground to a halt.

“There’s no committee work being done right now...there’s no hearings whether they be oversight hearings, markups, you name it,” the senior staffer said. “We’ve been stalled on some of the stuff that we’re working on, and every committee is that way.”

House Foreign Affairs Chairman Brian Mast (R-Fla.) described the tactical problem of Senate business continuing while House operations are frozen.

“The Senate still passing things...moving different pieces of legislation. And we’re not moving our pieces,” Mast said. “Tactically, that’s a problem that Senate’s moving things, you know, like NDAA and pieces in the NDAA and they’re attaching things like development finance corporation and stuff like that to these things, that we’re just not there to do our side of the fight with.”

Mast emphasized that his staff continues to show up despite missing paychecks.

“All of my staff are working. All of my staff on the foreign affairs committee are showing up every day,” he said. “They’re like everybody else. They’re showing up and they’re doing their job, and they’re not getting a check for them.”

But one House member noted that constituents care less about stalled committee work than about tangible impacts like unpaid TSA workers, air traffic controllers, and military personnel, or potential interruptions to WIC and SNAP benefits.

The member identified TSA as a potential crisis point—a massive workforce of entry-level employees living paycheck to paycheck who could shut down air travel worldwide if they walk off the job.

“Most TSA workers, they’re not like they came out of, you know, 20 years in the CIA and this is their next career and they have that pension coming in,” the member said. “Most of these people are, you know, a job or two jobs out of entry level work, they’re check to check.”

The member added they initially didn’t think the shutdown would last a week.

“If you would’ve asked me before this started, I would’ve said, I don’t think it lasts a week, clearly I was wrong,” the member said. “There’s just no good reason for it.”

Some vendors who work with Hill offices are continuing to provide services despite the shutdown, knowing they will eventually be paid once appropriations are enacted, according to another senior GOP source. A number of offices also had year-long contracts for services that are continuing uninterrupted.

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