The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals rules that DOGE may not have access to Social Security databases.
Apr 30, 2025
First 100 Days
The Trump Administration has identified its top accomplishments at Social Security in its first 100 days.
Trump Administration's Childish Passion For Undoing Anything Joe Biden Did Extends To Sabotaging Its Own AI Efforts
From Time:
... The Biden Administration moved aggressively in its final 18 months to convince more than 200 AI technology experts to forgo the private sector for the federal workforce, through what was called the ”National AI Talent Surge.” The new hires were deployed throughout the government and used AI to find ways to reduce Social Security wait times, simplify tax filings, and help veterans track their medical care. Most of them were quickly pushed out by the new administration, multiple former federal officials tell TIME.
The shift, say the former officials, represents an enormous waste of federal resources, as agencies across the Trump Administration are looking to draw workers with the very experience they just let go. It also means agencies may have to increasingly rely on costlier outside companies for that expertise. ...
In early 2024, Biden officials hired Angelica Quirarte, who had spent years pitching tech experts on becoming public servants. Quirarte says that coders and engineers are natural problem-solvers and are attracted to the challenge of working with huge data sets that can improve services for millions of people. ...
In less than a year, Quirarte tells TIME, she helped hire about 250 AI experts. After Trump’s actions, she estimates about 10% of that cohort are still with the federal government.
“It’s going to be really hard” for the Trump administration to hire more tech workers after such haphazard layoffs, Quirarte says. “It’s so chaotic.” ...
These are not serious people.
Apr 29, 2025
A Preview Of What AI Could Do For Social Security
From Rest of World:
When Josélia de Brito, a former sugarcane worker from a remote town in northeast Brazil, filed for her retirement benefits through the mandated government app, she expected her claim would be processed quickly. Instead, her request was instantly turned down because the system identified her as a man. ...
It was especially frustrating for de Brito, who had been requesting sick pay for years via the National Social Security Institute’s artificial intelligence-powered app, Meu INSS. ... [E]ven minor errors in her claims filed through the app had led to numerous rejections, with few options for recourse. ...
Brazil’s social security institute, known as INSS, added AI to its app in 2018 in an effort to cut red tape and speed up claims. The office, known for its long lines and wait times, had around 2 million pending requests for everything from doctor’s appointments to sick pay to pensions to retirement benefits at the time. While the AI-powered tool has since helped process thousands of basic claims, it has also rejected requests from hundreds of people like de Brito — who live in remote areas and have little digital literacy — for minor errors. ...
Apr 28, 2025
Digital Social Security Cards
From ThinkAdvisor:
The Social Security Administration said Friday that starting this summer, "my Social Security" portal users will be provided digital access to their Social Security number — offering "a modernized, secure and accessible alternative to the traditional physical SSN card."
The digital SSN feature "will allow account holders to conveniently display their SSN, when needed, for reasons other than handling Social Security matters," the agency said.
"This enhancement will provide individuals who have forgotten their SSN or misplaced their SSN cards a simple solution allowing them to securely view their SSN online," SSA said. "This will reduce their need for an in-person visit and/or having to wait to receive their SSN card through the mail." ...
I don't understand how this is going to work when someone needs to show their Social Security card in order to get a job or a drivers license.
The Odd Couple
From a piece in Business Insider on Leland Dudek and Frank Bisignano:
… Bisignano's confirmation is awaiting a full Senate vote, which is expected after the chamber votes on nominees for multiple diplomatic positions. …
Some who spoke with BI expressed surprise that he would join the Trump administration. An archived biography from First Data, where he served as chair and CEO, said he's "a strong supporter of diversity" and helped create affinity groups for women and LGBTQ+ employees at the company. He's donated to candidates on both sides of the aisle, including Sen. Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, and Florida's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, records show. In May 2019, Bisignano gave $125,000 to the Trump Victory PAC and another $83,900 to the Republican National Committee. …A person who has spoken with Dudek said they believed some of his bluster might be a smoke screen. They said Dudek, like previous commissioners, said he feared that the system was on the brink of collapse and worried about people not receiving their benefits — a similar sentiment to what Dudek expressed in a recording obtained by ProPublica. They feel that he thinks he's doing damage control and running interference between DOGE and everyone else.
"It felt like a bunch of 6-year-olds with too much sugar had been put in charge of the agency and were just kind of running all over the place, randomly disconnecting and reconnecting things in different ways," the former SSA manager said.
Some of the decisions at Fiserv that played out on Bisignano's watch appear to have rankled some of his employees. A former Fiserv client project manager said that return-to-office policies rolled out late last year under Bisignano contributed to his decision to leave. The former manager described the culture as "a bit of a sweatshop." …
Bisignano "loves his reputation for fixing things," said one person who worked closely with him, "not for burning things down." …
I’m pretty sure that if he knew now what’s he’s going to learn in the next few months that Bisignano would not want to be Commissioner of Social Security. The impressive knowledge and skill which he has demonstrated in his previous career will be completely inadequate to the task because he’s faced with a truly impossible task.
Default Overpayment Recovery Rate To Be 50%
Newly issued Social Security Emergency Message EM 25029 indicates that the default overpayment recovery rate will be 50%, not 100% as feared. It had been 10% for about the last year. Also, those already told they had a 10% recovery rate won’t see that rate rise.
Apr 27, 2025
Less Is More?
From the Washington Post:
Democrats, after weeks of struggling to find a message that resonates with ordinary Americans while President Donald Trump dominates the news, are beginning to settle on one: the allegation that Trump and his allies are crippling Social Security. …
“For much of the country, Washington might as well be Mars for all the connection it has to them,” Sen. Ron Wyden (Oregon), the top Democrat on the committee that oversees Social Security, said in an interview. “But Social Security is something where there is connective tissue between the government and the people.” …
Michael Astrue, who led the Social Security Administration under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama — and says he voted for Trump — sharply criticized cuts to the agency by Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service, which stands for Department of Government Efficiency. “I think you have a group of very immature people coming out of Silicon Valley bro culture, and they have decided federal agencies are filled with bad people doing bad things, and if you go in and hack away, and you don’t have to know what you are doing, you can improve it because less is more,” Astrue said. …
The White House has shown uncharacteristic concern that the Democratic message on Social Security could resonate. The president has made clear to top aides that he does not like seeing the agency in the news so often and so negatively, one senior Social Security official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to talk about a sensitive issue. …
Former Associate Commissioner Speaks Out
From NPR:
… Laura Haltzel was the former associate commissioner for the SSA's Office of Research, Evaluation and Statistics in the agency's Maryland headquarters. Rather than volunteer for reassignment and face more uncertainty, she decided to take an offer of early retirement.
Haltzel said there are problems with the expectation that workers in roles like hers would be able to quickly jump in and replace the thousands of frontline workers that have left. She called the plan a "sort of mythical idea."
"We've lost an extreme amount of expertise and knowledge that we simply are not going to get back," she said. "Let's say somebody in my team, who is a statistician, [you] suddenly turn them into a claims processor. It takes two years of training for someone to become proficient at taking a Social Security claim because of the complexity of the law. That is not something that you can simply plug somebody into overnight and keep up at the same pace as it had been operating previously."
"People are taking reassignments out of fear that they will have no jobs because the entire economy in the D.C. area now is affected by a loss of employment across the federal landscape," she said. "And for all of these individuals to find new jobs in the private sector, that's simply not a reality, particularly from the Social Security Administration, for which there is no private equivalent." …
Haltzel said she's deeply concerned about the loss of expertise that has left the SSA in recent weeks. She said her former team, which analyzed whether the agency was doing a good job serving beneficiaries, has been cut by more than half.
"I hope that we're able to sustain a basic minimum of knowledge in order to maintain the functioning of the agency," Haltzel said. "But frankly, given that they have no control over who takes the reassignments and who simply retires and leaves, they could lose individuals where we are one person deep in knowledge. And once that knowledge is gone, it is gone. These people will not come back." …
Apr 26, 2025
Lots Of Detail About What's Gone Down With DOGE at Social Security
I'm not sure why but Social Security has posted in its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Reading Room hundreds of pages of records it has filed with the U.S. District Court in the litigation over DOGE access to agency databases. If you want to delve into this in great detail, here you go.
Apr 25, 2025
You Knew It Was Coming: SSAB To Be Axed
From U.S. News and World Report:
... The White House's Office of Management and Budget has notified staff at the Social Security Advisory Board that it plans to cut the board's annual budget from around $3 million to zero, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss non-public budgetary details. ...
Note that this is completely illegal, at least if this is something to be done now instead of just a proposal for the next federal budget. Congress has appropriated money for SSAB. The President lacks the power to unilaterally withhold the money or terminate the agency.
What’s Going On With The Death Master File?
SentiLink asks and to a large extent answers the question “What’s going on with SSA’s Death Master File?” The answer is that DOGE added millions of names of people who died a long time ago. These additions had no intended effect on benefit payments. Other systems already prevented benefit payments to those who would have been 120 years of age or older. The only effects were upon those who were included by mistake. We don’t know how many were added to the Death Master File by mistake but any number is too many since the whole exercise was pointless to begin with!
An analysis by SentiLink suggests that those with the following surnames were most likely to have been added to the Death Master File even though they were alive:
- Rodriguez
- Garcia
- Perez
- Perez Rodriguez
- Harutunyan
OIG Criticizes SSA Contract With Verizon
Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) has a good deal of criticism for the agency's $160 million contract with Verizon for an updated telephone system. Things worked out poorly and OIG blames the inability to get Verizon to make things work on lack of performance standards in the agency's contract with Verizon.
Apr 24, 2025
It Wasn’t Just Aliens Who Were Cut Off Benefits By DOGE — Plenty Of Citizens As Well
From the Daily Beast:
What might be called Day of the Dead Living is being continually played out at a Social Security Administration (SSA) office in upstate New York, and likely across the country.
“We have people who did not receive benefits come in every day with their ID and say, ‘I’m not dead, I’m alive!” says Rennie Glasgow, a claims technical analyst with 15 years of experience at the agency who handles the most challenging cases at the Schenectady office.
These supposed dead are not to be confused with more than 6,000 living immigrants the Trump administration moved to the SSA Death Master File (DMF) in an attempt to force them to self-deport by depriving them of the ability to work legally.
Many more American citizens were wrongly consigned to the DMF after Elon Musk’s DOGE goons bullied their way onto the SSA’s databases and mistakenly decided that “countless” people listed as 120 years old and older were receiving benefits.
“[DOGE staffers] went into the system and they killed off people,” Glasgow told the Daily Beast. “About 4 million people, they marked them as dead. But they’re not sure if those people were supposed to be marked as dead, so they’re sending us an email saying, ‘If these people come into the office with their identification, you can reinstate them.’” …
Follow Me On Bluesky
I have been posting on Twitter, now "X", for some times. Unfortunately, "X" has become a cesspool. I don't want to keep posting on "X." Please follow me on my Bluesky account -- @socsecnews.bsky.social instead. I'll keep cross posting on "X" for a while but "X" ain't for me any more and, increasingly, it's not a place where my readers feel comfortable either. Bluesky is a sane platform which is not run by a nutjob. It's not full of crazy people. I'm happy to leave "X" for the wingnuts.
I post some things on Bluesky that I don't post here. Often I post items on Bluesky before I post them here. Bluesky may be worth your time, especially if you're disgusted with what Twitter has become.
Apr 23, 2025
I Think He’s Wrong But What Do I Know?
From Newsweek:
Former Social Security Commissioner Martin O'Malley is warning that benefit payments could soon be delayed for millions of Americans, citing deep staffing cuts and internal chaos at the Social Security Administration (SSA) under the Trump administration.
Speaking at a public forum in Long Island on Monday, O'Malley said he believes an interruption in payments could be imminent.
"I truly believe there's going to be some interruption of benefits for some period of time, and I believe that will probably happen in the very near future," O'Malley said, according to Long Island Press. "I've never hoped I was wrong so much in my life." …
Back To Seizing Social Security Benefits To Pay Student Loans
From MarketWatch:
The Trump administration is turning on some of the harshest consequences for falling behind on student loans.
Starting on May 5, the government is restarting debt collection on defaulted student loans. As part of these efforts, the Department of Education is restarting the process that allows for borrowers who are in default on their student loans to have their Social Security benefits and tax refunds offset to repay the debt, the U.S. Education Department announced Monday. Early this summer, the government will also begin garnishing wages to repay defaulted student loans.
This will mark the first time in five years — since the collections system was paused as part of the pandemic-era freeze on student-loan payments — that borrowers have faced these consequences for defaulting on student loans (defined as not making a payment on the debt in more than 270 days). …
You might think that few Social Security beneficiaries have student loans but you’d be wrong. Many do and the limited income of those who do makes it difficult for them to make student loan payments. Remember that those who are disabled are eligible for relief from their loans — but most don’t know this.
Apr 22, 2025
Stretched “Beyond All Recognition”
Acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek this month instructed staff to prepare to convert wide swathes of his agency to the revamped Schedule F, a move that experts say would stretch even the Trump administration’s wide definition of “policy-related” jobs “beyond all recognition.”
The Trump administration last week began moving forward with implementation of the newly-renamed Schedule Policy/Career, a new job classification within the federal government’s excepted service for career federal workers in “policy-related” positions. Employees reclassified into the new job category would be stripped of their civil service protections.
In an April 7 internal email obtained by Government Executive, the acting commissioner took a sweeping view of the role of policy at the independent agency.
“For SSA, policy-making positions encompass a wide range of responsibilities, including shaping regulations and sub-regulatory guidance, overseeing administrative law, managing contracts, guiding information resources management, and integrating research into decision-making,” he wrote. “Individuals in these roles often develop and implement both formal rules and informal policies, interpret and apply laws, and influence how SSA operates.” …
Employee groups and Social Security experts were taken aback by Dudek’s maximalist approach to implementing the new job category. Reclassifying the Office of Hearing Operations entirely into Schedule Policy/Career would impact upwards of 20% of the workforce represented by the American Federation of Government Employees, including jobs that start at as little as $40,000 per year.
“If this email constitutes SSA’s full decision, then the agency has contorted the term ‘policy-influencing’ beyond all recognition,” said Rich Couture, a spokesman for AFGE’s Social Security Administration general committee. “AFGE bargaining unit employees at SSA dutifully apply policies and procedures, established by agency leadership, in the performance of their duties for the American people every day. The employees are not policy-makers . . . The agency cannot take a chainsaw to necessary civil service protections to thousands of SSA workers in an attempt to solve a problem Employee groups and Social Security experts were taken aback by Dudek’s maximalist approach to implementing the new job category. Reclassifying the Office of Hearing Operations entirely into Schedule Policy/Career would impact upwards of 20% of the workforce represented by the American Federation of Government Employees, including jobs that start at as little as $40,000 per year.
“If this email constitutes SSA’s full decision, then the agency has contorted the term ‘policy-influencing’ beyond all recognition,” said Rich Couture, a spokesman for AFGE’s Social Security Administration general committee. “AFGE bargaining unit employees at SSA dutifully apply policies and procedures, established by agency leadership, in the performance of their duties for the American people every day. The employees are not policy-makers . . . The agency cannot take a chainsaw to necessary civil service protections to thousands of SSA workers in an attempt to solve a problem that doesn’t exist.” doesn’t exist.”
Sorry about the weird typography. Some weirdness in the original that I can’t undo.
A New “Fork In The Road”
I have seen multiple reports that some Social Security employees have received a new “fork in the road” email offering incentives for them to resign and an implied threat of firing if they don’t take the offer. I have no idea how many agency employees received these messages. It’s obvious that they want to reduce staffing but don’t want to be seen as firing people.
Is Social Security In Compliance With This?
42 U.S.C. §405(t) In any case in which an individual visits a field office of the Social Security Administration and represents during the visit to an officer or employee of the Social Security Administration in the office that the individual’s visit is occasioned by—
(1) the receipt of a notice from the Social Security Administration indicating a time limit for response by the individual, or
(2) the theft, loss, or nonreceipt of a benefit payment under this title,
the Commissioner of Social Security shall ensure that the individual is granted a face-to-face interview at the office with an officer or employee of the Social Security Administration before the close of business on the day of the visit.
Apr 21, 2025
NDAs?
I’ve been wondering about something. Maybe someone can answer my question anonymously. Have Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) figured into any of the recent departures of high level personnel at Social Security? I don’t know that NDAs have figured into federal personnel policies in the past but they’re something that the current President has used extensively in his businesses. There are reports that NDAs were used for White House staff during the first Trump Administration although those were apparently signed before hiring. I notice that the recently fired Acting Commissioner and the Regional Commissioners who left under circumstances we don’t understand have not spoken publicly about their departures from the agency or their views about what’s going on now at Social Security. Not a one. I’d think some of them would like to talk with the media but none has. NDAs could explain this but maybe it’s just reticence or fear of becoming the target of Trump’s crazy supporters. I have no idea whether federal funds could be used for NDAs.
Anybody know anything about this that you can share, at least anonymously?
Apr 20, 2025
Apr 19, 2025
We Must Remember
Thirty years ago today 16 employees of the Social Security Administration lost their lives when a federal building in Oklahoma City was bombed by a man with a grievance against the federal government. Unlike past years I have seen no press release or tweet remembering this solemn date. Here is the list of those Social Security employees who lost their lives that day.1. Richard A. Allen — Claims Representative — Had 22 years of service with SSA. A Vietnam veteran, he was born in Bailey's Crossroads, Va., and won a scholarship to Panhandle State University in Goodwell, Okla. He is survived by a daughter and his mother.
2. Saundra G. Avery — Development Clerk — Worked nine years for SSA. She was a native of Danville, Ark., and was active in her church. A graduate of Central State University in Edmond, Okla., Sandy is survived by her parents and a brother.
3. Oleta C. Biddy — Service Representative — Worked 20 years for SSA. Oleta was born in Rosebud, Ark., and was active as a Sunday school teacher and taught children's choir at her church. She is survived by her husband, a son, two grandchildren and two sisters.
4. Carol L. Bowers — Operations Supervisor — Had 33 years of service at SSA, starting as a clerk-steno in December 1961. Carol was born in Chandler, Okla., and is survived by her husband and a son.
5. Sharon L. Chesnut — Claims Representative — Worked for SSA for 21 years and was an active member of her church. She was born in Oklahoma City and is survived by a daughter, her mother, a sister, a stepson and a stepdaughter.
6. Katherine L Cregan Service Representative Had 14 years of SSA service. Kathy was a native of West Memphis, Ark. A widow, Kathy is survived by three sons and five grandchildren.
7. Margaret E. Goodson — Claims Representative — Had almost 21 years of service with SSA. Margaret enjoyed motorcycling and camping trips with her husband. Other survivors include three sons, one daughter, three brothers and four grandchildren.
8. Ethel L. Griffin — Service Representative — Had 19 years of service with SSA, as a claims clerk. She was born in Illinois, where she attended Southwest Jr. College and the College of DuPage. Ethel is survived by her husband, two children and three grandchildren.
9. Ronald V. Harding — Service Representative — Had more than 30 years of government service. He served two years in the Army and also worked for the Air Force before joining SSA in 1967. A respected musician, Ron is survived by two sons, two daughters, his parents, two brothers and a sister.
10. Raymond L. Johnson — Senior Community Service Volunteer National Indian Council on Aging worker, was stationed in the Oklahoma City DO for the past six months helping with Head Start programs for Seminole children. Born in Lawton, Okla., Raymond is survived by his wife, seven children, 21 grandchildren, five great-grandchildren and a brother.
11. Derwin W. Miller — Claims Representative — Worked at SSA for five years. Derwin was an Arkansas native and a member of the Army Reserve. He was hired through the Outstanding Scholar Program. He is survived by a daughter, his parents, two brothers, a sister and two grandmothers.
12. Charlotte A. Thomas — Contact Representative — Had 12 years of service with SSA. She was employed previously with the Departments of Defense and Health and Human Services. Charlotte is survived by a son.
13. Michael G. Thompson — Field Representative — Worked for SSA for 19 years. He served in the Army for more than two years. A Vietnam veteran, he is survived by his wife, three sons, one daughter, his mother, two brothers and one sister.
14. Robert N. Walker, Jr. — Claims Representative — Had 15 years of service with SSA. He served in the Army for three years. Born in Jacksonville, Fla., Bob attended the University of Florida. He is survived by his wife, one son, three stepsons, one stepdaughter and 12 grandchildren. (See in-depth story.)
15. Julie M. Welch — Claims Representative — Was hired under the Outstanding Scholar Program in August 1994. Julie was a recent graduate of Marquette University and had studied abroad at the University of Madrid. She is survived by her parents, a brother and a stepbrother.
16. William S. Williams — Operations Supervisor — Had 20 years of service with SSA. An Oklahoma native, he had a degree in mathematics from Oklahoma State University. Steve is survived by his wife, three daughters, his father, two sisters, one brother and two grandmothers.
Apr 18, 2025
Social Security Reinstating Immigrants Falsely Declared Dead
From the Washington Post:
Immigrants falsely labeled dead by the Social Security Administration are showing up at field offices with documents proving they are alive, leading staff to reinstate nearly three dozen people over the past week, according to records obtained by The Washington Post. The immigrants who have requested a reversal and been reinstated in Social Security databases include a Haitian asylum seeker and a minor child, the records show. Some immigrants have shown up with driver’s licenses and work permits to prove their legitimacy, the records show. Others have arrived bearing letters of notification that they received from their states declaring them dead. …
Records obtained by The Post show the immigrants listed as dead include a 13-year-old, a 14-year-old, two 16-year-olds and four 17-year-olds, as well as people in their 70s and one 83-year-old. Agency staff later checked some of the youngest individuals against data the agency uses to research criminal history and could find no evidence of crimes or law enforcement interactions, The Post reported. The records show 6,161 people were added to the file in early April at the request of DHS, along with an additional 102 a few days later. As of Friday, Social Security staff had restored 31 of these people to the rolls, declaring them living again, the records show. ..
I wonder if DOGE or the White House knew about these reinstatements.
Chatbot For SSA Employees
From Nextgov/FCW:
The Social Security Administration is introducing a new chatbot for employees powered by generative artificial intelligence, according to an internal email obtained by Nextgov/FCW.
“This initiative aligns with our commitment to leverage innovative technology to improve efficiency, support our mission and provide a secured way to use GenAI,” read a Wednesday email to staff announcing the new “Agency Support Companion.” …
SSA told staff that the new chatbot is meant to help with content creation and summarization, as well as research and coding assistance. Staff have to watch a four-minute video with guidelines and best practices to access it.
The new tool uses an OpenAI model and wasn’t trained or fine-tuned on any SSA data, according to an agency FAQ document obtained by Nextgov/FCW. No testing was done internally to assess the application against SSA-specific questions, it said.
The chatbot was trained on data up to October 2023, according to the FAQ, which also warned that employees should validate its responses and not feed it personally identifiable information. …
Sounds a little vague on how this is to be used. Could it turn out to be a solution in search of a problem?
DOGE Loses In Federal Court Again
A District Court in Maryland has issued a preliminary injunction forbidding DOGE access to non-anonymized Social Security records.
Apr 17, 2025
It’s A Zero Sum Game
From David Weaver writing for The Hill:
… The start-up administrative costs of the Social Security Fairness Act [which eliminated the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset] are plausibly about $200 million. When Congress was considering the full-year continuing resolution in March, it simply chose not to provide the Social Security Administration with sufficient funding to implement the law. As a result, Congress has created a zero-sum environment at the agency: additional service to one group means less service to another.
In the months since enactment of the SSFA, the Social Security Administration has taken an additional 146,000 new benefit applications related to the new law. That means 146,000 other Americans did not have their applications considered. Additionally, the agency has had to field 450,000 calls (6,000-7,000 per day) from the public requiring agency staff to explain the new law and resolve benefit problems. That means 450,000 other Americans did not get their Social Security problems resolved.Most alarmingly, the agency’s automation efforts for retroactive payments fell short. Social Security indicated that automation would result in these payments being deposited in bank accounts “by the end of March.” After its automation runs in March, however, there were still 500,000 to 700,000 cases to be processed. These will have to be handled manually over time. …The Social Security Administration plans to prioritize this manual workload, but all that means is that up to 700,000 other Americans in the agency’s very large payment backlog will not have their benefit payments processed. …
Hearing Backlog Starts To Inch Up As Available ALJs Dip Below 1,000
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Apr 16, 2025
Waste Of Scarce Resources
From “Fact Sheet” issued by the White House yesterday:
Today, President Donald J. Trump signed a Presidential Memorandum aimed at stopping illegal aliens and other ineligible people from obtaining Social Security Act benefits.
- This includes promulgating guidance and prioritizing enforcement actions against grantees or subgrantees that do not: verify eligibility, stop payments to deceased or ineligible payees, or otherwise prevent ineligible aliens from receiving funds.
- It expands the Social Security Administration’s (SSA’s) fraud prosecutor program to at least 50 U.S. Attorney Offices and establishes a Medicare and Medicaid fraud-prosecution program in 15 U.S. Attorney Offices.
- The Memorandum requires the SSA Inspector General to investigate earnings reports for individuals aged 100 or older with mismatched SSA records, to combat identity theft.
- It also directs the SSA to consider whether to reinstate the use of civil monetary penalties against individuals who engage in Social Security fraud, an effort that has been paused for several years.
PROTECTING TAXPAYER DOLLARS: President Trump believes that taxpayer-funded benefits should be provided only to eligible persons and must not encourage or reward illegal immigration to the United States.
- Policing Social Security Act fraud is critical because the Act contains not only traditional Social Security provided to older Americans, but also unemployment insurance, disability insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, TANF, and other programs.
- Biden oversaw a sharp increase in the number of immigrants given Social Security Numbers (SSNs), with more than 2 million illegal aliens assigned SSNs in fiscal year 2024 alone.
- FAIR estimated that nearly a million illegal aliens hold stolen identifications or fraudulent SSNs.
- Although some illegal aliens do pay taxes, those tax contributions come nowhere near covering the costs they impose on the populace; FAIR estimates illegal aliens are still a $150.7 billion net fiscal burden.
- The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Biden Administration’s open borders agenda, which sought to provide Medicaid-funded emergency services to illegal aliens, has cost Federal and state taxpayers more than $16.2 billion. Joe Biden also tried to make illegal aliens eligible for Obamacare until he was stopped in a lawsuit.
Apr 15, 2025
I Thought Social Security Was Supposed To Be Apolitical
A thread of tweets from the Social Security Administration this evening:
Former President Joe Biden [who is expected to make a speech on Social Security this evening] is lying to Americans.
Here are the facts:
1️⃣President Trump has repeatedly promised to protect Social Security and ensure higher-take home pay for seniors by ending taxation on Social Security benefits.
2️⃣The SSA has not permanently closed any field offices and 50% of the technology department has not been laid off.
3️⃣SSA is taking commonsense steps to transform how we serve the public - last month, we spent $16.5 million to modernize telephone services nationwide. We’re developing cutting-edge, AI-powered tools to streamline simple tasks.
4️⃣A SSA Inspector General report released while Joe Biden was President found $72 billion in improper payments from fiscal years 2015 through 2022.
5️⃣Over 2 million illegal aliens were assigned SSNs in fiscal year 2024 alone.
Good Lord!
This is from a Washington Post article. You really need to read the whole thing. This is most disturbing.
Representatives of Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service have sought for weeks to get around a court order barring their access to sensitive data and internal systems at the Social Security Administration, prompting career staff to repeatedly resist their efforts, according to a half dozen people familiar with the DOGE team’s actions and records obtained by The Washington Post. The battle inside the agency led the Justice Department to intervene to deny DOGE access to the data, even as the Trump administration installed and promoted DOGE-friendly leaders to dramatically cut back services at Social Security. It involved staff, from rank-and-file employees to senior leaders, including acting commissioner Leland Dudek, who was appointed to his position after displaying public loyalty to DOGE. …
At the same time, Dudek mistakenly let one of the DOGE representatives into a Social Security database last week, violating the court order, according to a person familiar with events who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. That error led a federal judge to summon Dudek for a hearing Tuesday at federal court in Baltimore, but the Trump administration said in a filing late Monday that he would no longer appear. …
At first, officials obeyed the courts. Immediately after Hollander issued her order, the agency cut off DOGE staffers from all systems, according to employees and records obtained by The Post. The compliance came at the direction of Michael Russo, then the chief information officer, who was recommended for the job by Frank Bisignano, President Donald Trump’s nominee to become the permanent leader of Social Security. …
But Russo’s swift action did not go over well with the Trump administration. He was reassigned in late March to a “senior adviser” position focused on “IT Modernization” in the office of the commissioner, according to a memo obtained by The Post. He was replaced as chief information officer by Scott Coulter, a New York-based hedge fund manager and a member of Musk’s DOGE team, according to the memo and court filings. …
Meanwhile, Mark Steffensen — another Trump appointee and DOGE ally serving as acting general counsel — was tasked with determining whether DOGE representatives should be allowed to access Social Security data. Steffensen, a former top financial executive, had assumed his role as a senior adviser at Social Security at Bisignano’s recommendation on Feb. 24, according to another memo obtained by The Post. …
Soon, Steffensen was fighting with career lawyers at Social Security. Attorneys in the office of general counsel wanted to draft agencywide guidance that would comply with the judge’s order, setting strict rules for how staff could interact with DOGE representatives, according to a person briefed on the events. But Steffensen initially wanted the lawyers to issue a memo giving DOGE access to Social Security data, the person said. None of the career employees would agree to Steffensen’s plan, the person said. So he began circumventing the lawyers by telling DOGE representatives to keep working on their projects anyway, according to the person and records obtained by The Post. …
Near the end of March, the office of general counsel issued its guidance on DOGE’s data access at Social Security, according to a copy of the memo obtained by The Post. The final version appeared to align with career lawyers’ viewpoint. It said that “DOGE team members are restricted … from accessing, viewing, or otherwise working with” any “information that can be used to distinguish or trace an individual’s identity,” including “any nonpublic datasets that are aggregated or deidentified but could be used to identify a person.” …
In early April, lawyers with the Justice Department were called in to give their opinion, too, according to two people familiar with the discussions. Department lawyers told Steffensen that under no circumstances should DOGE be allowed inside the agency’s data and that Social Security must follow the judge’s order, one of the people said. …
But DOGE kept up the pressure and, according to current and former officials, tried unsuccessfully to get Steffensen fired for failing to get them access. Members of the DOGE team also sought an exemption from the judge for several projects, the officials said. It is unclear if the judge agreed. In recent weeks, Social Security hired a new DOGE team member, but Dudek — not realizing this staffer was a member of the DOGE team — granted him access to some of the agency’s data, violating the judge’s order, according to records and a person familiar with the matter. Once Dudek realized his mistake, he removed the DOGE staffer from the agency’s systems, the person said.
As I have said before, I salute those who have fought the good fight to protect Social Security’s records. You deserve gold medals when these evil times are past.
Apr 14, 2025
A New Affidavit From Tiffany Flick And I Don’t Understand It
Social Security has posted an affidavit from Tiffany Flick in the case concerning DOGE access to agency databases. I don’t understand it. It seems to be saying that no names of living people have been intentionally added to the Death Master File. Maybe she’s hinting that Social Security didn’t do it; the Department of Commerce did it.
Apr 13, 2025
Deep Thoughts
If a live man is listed as dead in the Death Master File, are dependent benefits payable to his “widow” and children? Sounds like a case for estoppel to me.
Apr 12, 2025
A Salute To Those Who Resist Weaponizing The Death Master File
From the Washington Post:
Two days after the Social Security Administration purposely and falsely labeled 6,100 living immigrants as dead, security guards arrived at the office of a well-regarded senior executive in the agency’s Woodlawn, Maryland, headquarters. Greg Pearre, who oversaw a staff of hundreds of technology experts, had pushed back on the Trump administration’s plan to move the migrants’ names into a Social Security death database, eliminating their ability to legally earn wages and, officials hoped, spurring them to leave the country. In particular, Pearre had clashed with Scott Coulter, the new chief information officer installed by Elon Musk. Pearre told Coulter that the plan was illegal, cruel and risked declaring the wrong people dead, according to three people familiar with the events. But his objections did not go over well with Trump political appointees. And so on Thursday, the security guards in Pearre’s office told him it was time to leave. …
Staffers at Social Security began raising the alarm about the urgent need to address a flaw in the agency’s deaths database in February, according to a person familiar with the matter and records obtained by The Post. Anybody granted the appropriate permissions within Social Security could mark someone as dead, employees had realized, without having to prove their demise in any way — for example by referencing medical records or a death certificate. In emails and meetings that rose up the management chain, employees warned that the dataset was vulnerable to manipulation, according to the person and the records. Employees’ fear was partly that a bad actor who gained access to government credentials could label groups of living individuals as dead to target them for punishment, according to the person and the records. Some of those raising the alarm worried specifically that the Trump administration might try to use the database to go after people the president dislikes, the person said. …
A staff of fewer than a dozen career employees was assigned to work with Musk’s team on the project, according to a senior official who left the agency around that time. Career employees were concerned that they might be facilitating something illegal, asking themselves if they were at risk of going to jail for the work they were doing, the official said. …
One official chose to resign rather than remain involved in what he saw as an illegal attempt to repurpose the agency for immigration enforcement. …
Within Social Security, the general counsel’s office is preparing an opinion that will find the Trump administration’s unprecedented use of the death database a violation of privacy law, according to one person with knowledge of the upcoming declaration. The opinion will take issue with the agency knowingly and falsely declaring that living people are dead, the person said. …
What Should Banks Do?
Banks have a clear legal obligation to freeze the accounts of people who have died. What obligation or even right do they have to freeze the account of some living person whom the President wishes to declare a nonperson? Can banks and other financial institutions continue to rely upon the Death Master File or whatever they want to call it now? They know it’s being deliberately manipulated to deceive them into doing things they shouldn’t do.
Apr 11, 2025
This Makes Sense If You Prefer That The Public Not Know What You’re Doing
From Federal News Network:
The Social Security Administration is cutting staff from its communications office, and will rely on social media posts instead of press releases to update the media and the public.
Regional SSA offices, each representing several states, will no longer have fully staffed public affairs offices, because of the agency’s mass reassignment of employees to field offices. …
“Instead, the agency will be using X to communicate to the press and the public — formerly known as Twitter,” Kerr-Davis said. “This will become our communication mechanism.” …
Apr 10, 2025
What Due Process Rights Do These Folks Have? What’s To Prevent This From Being Done To Anyone Trump Regards As An Enemy?
From the New York Times:
Since taking office, the Trump administration has moved to revoke the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants who were allowed into the country under President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Now, the administration is taking drastic steps to pressure some of those immigrants and others who had legal status to “self-deport” by effectively canceling the Social Security numbers they had lawfully obtained, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times and interviews with six people familiar with the plans.
The goal is to cut those people off from using crucial financial services like bank accounts and credit cards, along with their access to government benefits.
The effort hinges on a surprising new tactic: repurposing Social Security’s “death master file,” which for years has been used to track dead people who should no longer receive benefits, to include the names of living people who the government believes should be treated as if they are dead. As a result of being added to the death database, they would be blacklisted from a coveted form of identity that allows them to make and spend money. …
Reality Intrudes On The DOGE Carnival But Employees Told To Refuse To Talk With Attorneys?
From the Washington Post:
Elon Musk’s cost-cutting operation, the U.S. DOGE Service, set off a panic in March among elderly and disabled people after proposing that the Social Security Administration scrap many of its claims services over the phone in an effort to end alleged identity fraud. …
According to an internal memo obtained by The Washington Post, plans to force people awarded retirement, disability and Medicare benefits to set up direct-deposit payments online or in person have been canceled after the agency concluded it could vet these transactions for fraud by phone. Those applying for benefits can also continue the process by phone without the need to go online or visit an office in person, according to the Monday memo from acting deputy commissioner Doris Diaz to acting commissioner Leland Dudek.
At the same time, the agency will implement a new fraud-detecting tool to “flag suspect teleclaims based on known, common characteristics of fraudulent claims,” the memo said. Only if an applicant’s phone call is flagged will they be required to show up in person, according to the memo. …
The memo offered few details on the new anti-fraud tool or how the agency will manage to stand it up in less than a week. It stated only that the tool will be launched “with current resources.” …
An email went out to Social Security technicians on Monday instructing them to “cease all written responses to Congressional inquiries and inquiries from Advocates,” according to a copy obtained by The Post. A similar email went out to employees in other divisions affecting a wide range of staff members, including benefits authorizers, claims specialists and customer service representatives. …
Problems For International Claimants
Millions of U.S. nationals live overseas. Some of them draw Social Security benefits, including disability benefits, which means that some of them need hearings on their disability claims. I'm hearing of new difficulties created for those needing hearings. They had been allowed to participate in their disability hearings by telephone from their homes overseas. I'm hearing that now they can only participate in their hearing by telephone if they're within the borders of the U.S.
Apr 9, 2025
DOGE Being Audited
From Wired:
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is auditing Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The probe, which has been ongoing since March, covers DOGE’s handling of data at several cabinet-level agencies, including the Departments of Labor, Education, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, the Treasury, and the Social Security Administration, as well as the US DOGE Service (USDS) itself, according to sources and records reviewed by WIRED. …
The audit, according to records reviewed by WIRED, is broadly centered on DOGE’s adherence to privacy and data protection laws and regulations. …
The GAO is part of the Legislative Branch so Trump can’t fire the Director of GAO for having the audacity to audit DOGE.
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