E. Tammy Kim at The New Yorker has a great piece going inside the work life of a current Social Security claims rep. The reporter was not supposed to have this kind of access.
I'm sure you've seen some cartoons from The New Yorker but you may not be all that familiar with the magazine. I've been subscribing for more than 50 years. I can tell you that articles in The New Yorker have an national agenda setting impact well beyond what most people could imagine.
From the Washington Post:
… Chief among [DOGE’s] plans: Using their tech expertise to build apps and websites to help federal workers and Americans trying to access government services, according to two people familiar with DOGE internal workings. Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia, a close friend of Musk’s who was responsible for the company’s inviting look, has been recruited to help lead the effort. Even this has invited criticism, however. Musk has repeatedly criticized Social Security, one of the government’s most popular programs, and DOGE staffers have been working inside the agency. But an effort to give the Social Security website and services a user-friendly digital overhaul was already underway at the U.S. Digital Service — until Musk pushed out the team working on it, according to Mina Hsiang, who led the USDS before the department became the U.S. DOGE Service in January.
“When you fire people who have deep understandings of the mission you want to accomplish, you’re sort of starting from zero,” she said. …
From Bloomberg:
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has sent three individuals with experience in private equity and finance to the Social Security Administration, highlighting the focus that President Donald Trump is putting on rooting out waste and fraud in the nation’s social insurance programs.
Among those tapped for the task are Antonio Gracias of Valor Equity Partners, who also served on the board of Tesla Inc. and was an early investor in SpaceX — two of Musk’s companies — as well as Scott Coulter, formerly of Lone Pine Capital, and Michael Russo, formerly of Shift4, according to people familiar with the moves who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss them. …
Social Security and other federal agencies are operating under a Continuing Resolution (CR) allowing them to spend money at the same rate as during the prior fiscal year. The current CR expires on March 15.
Republicans in the House of Representatives have released their version of a new full year CR. It gives the Social Security Administration $14.2 billion for operations, which is down by about $100 million from the prior FY. Of course, this is effectively a greater cut when inflation is considered. That bill's chances in the House are uncertain.
However, no appropriations bill can pass the Senate without Democratic votes or ending the filibuster. The price for Democratic support in the Senate is an end to the DOGE reign of terror, which many Republican Senators might also want, even though they won't say it publicly. A government shutdown looks inevitable and it could be a long one. I don't know about the President or Republicans in Congress but this is a fight to the death for Democrats.
Remember that while most Social Security employees are deemed essential and will stay on the job, eventually the pay checks stop in a very long shutdown. You can't get pay for the time period after the shutdown begins until some sort of funding bill is passed. Federal employees will have to figure out when that will occur.
Hovering over this is the claim of the President that he is under no obligation to spend appropriated funds — recission. This is almost certainly unconstitutional but that’s not stopping him at the moment. It’s not clear that he will obey the Supreme Court when they finally tell him explicitly to knock it off as I expect.
Here’s an extraordinary account of what led up to Michelle King’s firing as Acting Commissioner of Social Security and Lee Dudek’s elevation from the then Acting Chief of Staff, Tiffany Flick.
From the Citizens’ Voice in Pennsylvania:
The labor union leader for employees at the Social Security Administration Data Operations Center in Plains Twp. said she can’t understand how the vital facility ended up on a government sales list earlier this week.
The facility is the lone one in the country that does what it does, said Barri Sue Bryant, head of the local American Federation of Government Employees, who represents more than 1,000 workers there.
“We are the only one left. We are necessary,” Bryant said. “I don’t think much thought went into that list at all.”
Earlier this week, the General Services Administration identified the local Social Security facility as one of 433 “non-core assets” the government wants to sell. By the next day, the list was removed from the agency’s website, replaced by a “coming soon” message. …
Bryant said the Social Security call center — which employs more than 1,100 people — does vital work.’
Between Oct. 1 and Jan. 31, the center handled 1.23 million customer service calls to help people with their Social Security benefits, she said.
During that time, the staff responded to 140,000 emails, processed over 84,000 retirement claims and processed more than 4,000 disability claims, Bryant said. ..
From the Associated Press:
A group of labor unions are asking a federal court for an emergency order to stop Elon Musk ‘s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing the sensitive Social Security data of millions of Americans.
The motion for emergency relief was filed late Friday in federal court in Maryland by the legal services group Democracy Forward against the Social Security Administration and its acting commissioner, Leland Dudek. The unions want the court to block DOGE’s access to the vast troves of personal data held by the agency.
From ABC News:
The Department of Government Efficiency is sifting through $1.6 trillion worth of Social Security payments -- records that include a person's name, birth date and how much they earn -- in an anti-fraud effort that has advocates worried the Trump administration could start denying payments to vulnerable older Americans.
Details on the effort were confirmed in a recent letter to Congress by acting Social Security Administrator Lee Dudek and by several sources familiar with the project.
In addition to combing through sensitive data, DOGE staffers also have been inquiring about the Social Security Administration'stelephone service, sources told ABC News, which a significant portion of beneficiaries use to file initial claims. DOGE's inquiries about the telephone service have raised concerns that it may be planning either to replace the telephone service with private call centers or eliminate it as an option for filing claims, sources said. …
I warned this might happen. From Social Security’s blog:
The Social Security Administration (SSA) announced it will increase the default overpayment withholding rate for Social Security beneficiaries to 100 percent of a person’s monthly benefit. The Office of the Chief Actuary estimates this change will result in an increase in overpayment recoveries (i.e., a program savings) of about $7 billion in the next decade. …
As of March 27, the agency will begin mailing notices about the new 100 percent withholding rate, rather than the recent adjustment of just 10 percent. The withholding rate change applies to new overpayments related to Social Security benefits. The withholding rate for current beneficiaries with an overpayment before March 27 will not change and no action is required. The withholding rate for Supplemental Security Income overpayments remains 10 percent. …
They announced this late on a Friday afternoon. I wonder why.
O’Malley’s change should have been placed in the regs where it wouldn’t be so easily reversed.
A former federal contracting officer writes that correcting the mess created by cancelling Social Security's enumeration at birth contract with Maine (and perhaps other states) may not be so easy. As he writes, "One thing drilled into the heads of contract specialist and contracting officer by their lawyers is that there 'ain’t breathing no life into a dead contract. Dead is Dead.'” Starting all over again on a federal contract isn't something done quickly.
“I recently directed Social Security employees to end two contracts which affected the good people of the state of Maine. The two contracts are Enumeration at Birth (EAB), which helps new parents quickly request a Social Security number and card for their newborn before leaving the hospital, and Electronic Death Registry (EDR) which shares recorded deaths with Social Security.
In retrospect, I realize that ending these contracts created an undue burden on the people of Maine, which was not the intent. For that, I apologize and have directed that both contracts be immediately reinstated. EAB and EDR continue in place for every state and were not affected.
As a leader, I will admit my mistakes and make them right.”
From the Portland Press Herald
The Social Security Administration is requiring new parents in Maine to register for a Social Security number for their newborn by visiting one of the state’s eight Social Security offices and no longer allowing them to simply fill out a form at a hospital, according to an email sent by Maine officials this week.
Advocates for pediatrics in Maine immediately criticized the move as burdensome, unnecessary and unfair. …
The email notice sent on Wednesday by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services to “birth certifiers” says that “effective immediately, the option for parents to participate in the enumeration at birth process will be suspended.” …
There’s a report that these contracts have been cancelled in five other states! The reason may be that the states collect information on the race of the children but I thought all states did that.
I must have gotten a half dozen calls from reporters all asking the same thing -- can I put them in touch with Social Security employees willing to talk with them. I've had to say no. I don't know anyone willing to talk with them. I know most of you are scared to talk with a reporter and I understand why. However, some of you might be willing to talk as long as your identity is kept secret. Reporters will do that. If you're interested in talking, send me an e-mail. There's a contact form on this blog, to the right of where you're reading now. You'll have to give me a valid e-mail address, at least. Voices from within Social Security should be heard.
I can't figure out a way to embed the video here but go to this link. Thank "X" for the download problem.
From the Washington Post:
... In a meeting Tuesday with his senior staff and about 50 legal-aid attorneys and other advocates for the disabled and elderly, acting SSA commissioner Leland Dudek referred to [Elon Musk's] cost-cutting team as “outsiders who are unfamiliar with nuances of SSA programs,” according to a meeting participant’s detailed notes that were obtained by The Washington Post.
“DOGE people are learning and they will make mistakes, but we have to let them see what is going on at SSA,” Dudek told the group, according to the notes. “I am relying on longtime career people to inform my work, but I am receiving decisions that are made without my input. I have to effectuate those decisions.” ...
On Thursday morning — three hours after the publication of this story — an all-staff email went out to SSA employees informing them they would be prevented “effective today” from accessing certain websites on their government devices, including “online shopping,” “general news” and “sports.” ...
Even some Republicans privately acknowledge discomfort with Dudek, who was appointed as acting commissioner when the career senior executive in the role abruptly retired after refusing his push to give DOGE employees unauthorized access to private data. ...
Meeting with advocates on Tuesday, Dudek sought to cast himself as someone on their side. He described his parents as blue-collar workers with little formal education who divorced when he was young, according to the notes obtained by The Post. His mother was injured and went on disability benefits, he explained. In high school, he would eat leftovers from the school cafeteria trash, he said.
Dudek said the old ways of “setting goals, doing studies, discussion, getting information and data before making decisions” are gone. Those in charge now “will make mistakes, but I need to move them in a direction that is best for SSA,” he said, and asked the advocates for their support. ...
Andrew Biggs, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right think tank, said shrinking Social Security’s roughly $15 billion operating budget would represent just a small fraction of the program’s $1.5 trillion in annual costs.
“If you’re talking about Social Security solvency, this stuff is a drop in the bucket,” Biggs said. “It doesn’t make any sense at all.” ...
Andrew Saul, who served as SSA commissioner in Trump’s first term, said he welcomed the cuts — but he was adamant that without corresponding modernization of the agency’s many aging technology systems, service will suffer.
“You can’t replace all of these people without the proper systems,” Saul said. “And it takes time to develop them.” ...
In interviews, eight employees described chaos and the dissolution of a system they have been proud to serve, fueled by DOGE-led cuts to staff, spending and operating systems.
Wait times for basic phone service have grown, in some cases to hours, according to some employees, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to share internal details. Delays in reviews of disability claims and hearings before administrative law judges are already starting. ...
Meanwhile, supervisors have little time to give guidance or advice, the employee said, because they are constantly pulled into lengthy meetings to dissect the latest guidance from the Trump administration on return-to-office orders, firing of probationary employees and a Musk-led campaign requiring federal workers to send weekly bullet points laying out their accomplishments.
“Morale is in the toilet,” the employee said. “We all know what DOGE wants to do, which is just break us, so they can privatize us.”
Due to a DOGE-driven spending freeze on federal credit cards, some offices can’t pay phone bills, the employee said, while one office was forced last week to cancel three disability hearings because the staff could not use charge cards to pay for interpreters who speak foreign languages or American Sign Language. One claimant has a terminal illness, and another is in danger of losing their house, the employee said. No new hearings have been scheduled.
Meanwhile, a DOGE-led campaign to cancel contracts deemed “wasteful” across the government is also hurting Social Security. The agency lost a contract that paid for medical experts to testify at disability hearings, the employee said, along with another contract for mold removal from offices. ...
As the agency prepares for a mandated return to in-office work, space constraints in some offices have left supervisors to consider assigning employees to work at desks in supply closets, the worker said.
“It’s just chaos, people are terrified, and no one knows anything, including our supervisors,” the employee said. ...
Apparently, access to this blog is being banned through Social Security's web access. Remember, you have cell phones and home computers!
The Daily Beast reports that “The Los Angeles Times removed its new AI-powered “insights” feature from a column after the tool tried to defend the Ku Klux Klan.”
Social Security Addressing Aged Records
Actions Support President’s PrioritiesThe Social Security Administration (SSA) today shared its significant progress in identifying and correcting beneficiary records of people 100 years old or older. The data reported in the media represent people who do not have a date of death associated with their record. While these people may not be receiving benefits, it is important for the agency to maintain accurate and complete records.
“I thank President Trump for highlighting these inconsistencies during his speech last night to a joint session of Congress,” said Lee Dudek, Acting Commissioner of Social Security. “We are steadfast in our commitment to root out fraud, waste, and abuse in our programs, and actively correcting the inconsistencies with missing dates of death.”
The agency follows long established program integrity initiatives that identify people who have a higher likelihood of being deceased due to their age or incomplete death reports. For example, SSA receives data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services of individuals who have not used Medicare Part A or Part B for three or more years. SSA uses the data as an indicator to select and prioritize cases of individuals age 90 or older, who are currently in pay status and living in the United States, to determine continued eligibility for Social Security benefits. The agency attempts to conduct an interview with these individuals to verify they are still alive. If the agency identifies someone is deceased, it immediately stops payment and reports any suspicions of fraud to SSA’s Office of the Inspector General.
Here's your early afternoon roundup of Social Security news:
By the way, if the response from House Democrats to the crisis at Social Security seems tepid to you, just what do you think that the minority party in both Houses of Congress can do? Seriously, what would you have them do? I can suggest one thing -- force a government shutdown unless the White House agrees to end the madness throughout the government -- but they're doing that. Expect a government shutdown next week.
From a list of federally owned properties for sale in the Baltimore area:
| ALTMEYER BLDG | WOODLAWN | 219,798 |
| ANNEX TO SOC SEC | WOODLAWN | 439,698 |
In his State of the Union address Donald Trump said that "1.3 million people from ages 150 to 159, and over 130,000 people, according to the Social Security databases, are age over 160 years old.” You could call that true but only in the most narrow, misleading way possible. By any reasonable standard, it’s a flat out lie but, as we know, Donald Trump lies the way some people chew gum.
I don’t know why Trump doesn’t sign an executive order that Social Security must immediately cut off benefits to anyone 115 or more years old. Easily ordered. Easily implemented. Get on with it!
… At a press conference Monday, Senate Democrats accused the administration and Musk of sabotaging the agency as the first step in an effort to strip Americans of their earned benefits and sell off the agency’s functions to private industry.
“If you take the system today, with these superb statistics that 99.7% of retirement benefits are paid accurately and on-time, and you start hollowing it out, which is essentially what they’re doing, and then they’ll say, ‘Oh my goodness, we need the private sector here, or we won’t have a program,’” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. “This is kind of the history of these kinds of efforts. It’s a prelude to privatization.”
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., called Trump and Musk’s actions at SSA as akin to “taking a wrecking ball” to the agency and its services. …
Social Security Identifies Hundreds of Millions of Dollars in Savings
Actions Support the Administration’s Priorities
The Social Security Administration (SSA) continues to make good on President Trump’s promise to protect American taxpayers from unnecessary spending while continuing to ensure it delivers on its mission.
“For too long, SSA has operated on autopilot,” said Lee Dudek, Acting Commissioner of Social Security. “We have spent billions annually doing the same things the same way, leading to bureaucratic stagnation, inefficiency, and a lack of meaningful service improvements. It is time to change just that.”
The agency has thus far identified over $800 million in cost savings or cost avoidance for fiscal year (FY) 2025 in areas of payroll, information technology, contracts and grants, and space savings (i.e., real property), and other savings through new, common-sense approaches to printing, travel, and purchase card policies.
- List of Savings
- Payroll: Froze SSA and Disability Determination Services (DDS) hiring and drastically reduced overtime - $550 million.
- Information Technology Systems (ITS) Budget: An ITS budget reduction of $150 million by cancelling non-essential contracts and identifying reductions in other ITS contracts.
- Non-ITS Budget: 70 percent Reduction in Travel - $10 million.
- Contracts and Grants:
- Contracts Terminated - $15 million.
- Grants Terminated - $15 million.
- Real Property:
- Planned non-public facing usable square footage (USF) reductions:
- Achieved Savings to date - 270,000 USF - $102 million.
- Anticipated Additional Savings thru EOY FY 2025 - 30,000 USF - $1.5 million.
- Soft-Term Lease Terminations – Over 60 lease terminations with assistance from the General Services Administration (GSA) - $4.0 million in annual rent savings once terminations are complete. Most sites are co-located; others are non-public facing, consolidations, or preplanned closings.
- Guards: Plan to implement protective security officer staffing model and policy for field offices - estimated $30 million beginning in FY 2025.
- Printing and Postage: Made SSA-1099 and SSA-1042 notices available online, and 5.4 million customers opted out of paper notices - $3 million cost avoidance.
- Centralized Print Printing: Contracted with vendors to centrally print and mail notices rather than having frontline staff print and mail them locally - $28 million in workyear savings.
- Travel and Purchase Card Policy: Revised card policy to save millions in purchase card obligations.
Social Security remains committed to identifying more ways to save taxpayers money and implementing more solutions that free up frontline employees to help more customers.
Subject: Non-bargaining Unit Employees - Return to In-Person Work and Cancellation of Expanded Flexible Bands
On Monday, January 20, 2025, President Trump issued a Presidential Memorandum (PM) requiring all employees to return to work in-person full time. This message serves as your official notice that your telework agreement will be terminated effective March 4, 2025 with all employees expected to return to work in-person full time on March 5, 2025. Additionally, all expanded flexbands for non-bargaining unit employees are cancelled. Non-bargaining unit employees must follow the flexbands in agency policy (see Personnel Policy Manual S610_3). Employees must return any agency equipment taken to their telework location to their SSA office location.
The return to work in-person does not currently apply to employees under approved reasonable accommodations (RA) authorizing telework, temporary work at home by exception (WAHBE) agreements for medical reasons, or temporary compassionate assignments (TCA). In addition, employees in the Office of Hearings Operations and Office of Financial Policy and Program Integrity may remain in their current telework posture.
Any outstationed employees with an assigned SSA office location must also begin working at their assigned agency location full time as of March 5, 2025. Their telework agreements are terminated as indicated above.
The Office of Human Resources will send more on placement of employees with homestationing agreements into onsite official duty stations in the near future.
Employees may reapply for an episodic telework agreement or a TCA for temporary, short-term needs. Additionally, if your location has a space limitation issue, your supervisor will notify you to provide the next steps. As a reminder, any episodic telework is granted on a case-by-case basis and only in situations where the requested telework will benefit the agency.
We understand that this transition will require an adjustment to employee work/life arrangements. Supervisors should be liberal with the approval of leave over the next 4 weeks to accommodate the changes. We encourage employees to review the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) the agency has prepared on return to office topics. The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is also available to you using Access Code: ssaeap or 1-877-549-9528.
Supervisors will upload a copy of this telework termination notice to employees’ e7B files.
We meet late into the night in his office and we've looked at that. What he's finding with his algorithms crawling through the data of Social Security system is enormous amounts of fraud, waste, and abuse.
A couple of thoughts: Are he and his crew authorized to do this and when will we get to find out about all this fraud, waste and abuse? Also, he’s not keeping a copy of this data, is he?
From CNBC:
Social Security has never missed a benefit payment since the program first began sending individuals monthly benefits more than eight decades ago.
But the recent actions at the U.S. Social Security Administration by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency are putting monthly benefit checks for more than 72.5 million Americans at risk, former commissioner and former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley told CNBC.com.
“Ultimately, you’re going to see the system collapse and an interruption of benefits,” O’Malley said. “I believe you will see that within the next 30 to 90 days.”
For the record, I’m pretty sure that O’Malley is wrong on the threat of interrupted benefits. Social Security does not initiate payment of benefits nor does it even maintain the database of those who should be paid. The Department of the Treasury does that. Social Security just gives Treasury new info — people to be added or subtracted from the list. Treasury does the rest. So unless Treasury is itself terribly affected they will continue to make the payments. It’s just that they may be making less accurate payments including, ironically, paying some dead people who should have been cut off benefits.
