"Backdoor For Privatizing Social Security"

     The Trump Administration's Treasury Secretary has said straight up that the current Administration is creating a "backdoor for privatizing Social Security."

Now It’s Optional?

     From Nextgov/FCW: 

… That public filing outlined a regime where callers would have to log into SSA online to get a one-time code that would prove their identity in order to get help with those four transactions. Since the spring, the agency has required users to supply that pin to change their direct deposit information over the phone. 

Now, an SSA spokesperson says that it will update the document “to clarify that the use of the Security Authentication PIN (SAP) feature is entirely optional.”

“We are encouraging my Social Security accountholders to use the enhanced SAP feature to quickly and securely verify their identity when calling the National 800 Number,” they said, noting that the existing processes to verify identity will remain on the agency’s phone line. 

The agency had estimated that the policy requiring people to verify themselves with a PIN would send over three million people to SSA field offices, but the spokesperson told Nextgov/FCW that “beneficiaries and my Social Security accountholders will not be required to visit a field office if they do not choose to use the SAP feature.” …

Huge New Workload For Field Offices

     From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is overwhelming its local offices by forcing millions more people to seek in-person service while cutting thousands of staff who provide that help. These offices, which primarily serve seniors, people with disabilities, and bereaved families, helped nearly 32 million visitors last year. But under a new policy set to take effect in August, beneficiaries will be forced to take millions of unnecessary trips to field offices, where they will face longer waits for appointments and slower processing times.

As of mid-August, SSA will no longer allow Social Security beneficiaries to perform routine tasks solely by phone — changing their addresses, checking the status of claims, requesting benefit verification letters, or asking for tax forms — as they’ve been able to do for decades. Instead, beneficiaries seeking to complete those tasks by phone will need to complete a multi-factor, multi-step online verification process to generate a one-time PIN code to help prove their identity.

The new PIN code process will be impossible for many beneficiaries to complete. And if they can’t, they’ll need to travel to a field office. That will require 3.4 million more people to travel to SSA offices annually, by the agency’s own estimates. This will create a significant new burden, particularly for those who live in rural areas or have transportation or mobility difficulties.

    The AARP is expressing opposition to this decision. 

Scare Tactics Having An Effect

      From USA Today:

In an AARP survey released July 22, only 36% of Americans voiced confidence in the future of the retirement trust fund, down from 43% in 2020.   

AAnother July survey, from the nonprofit Alliance for Lifetime Income, found that 58% of older Americans fear Social Security cuts because of recent news about potential changes to the program.  …

In the new AARP survey, 25% of people ages 18-49 voiced confidence in the program’s future, compared with 48% of those 50 and older. …

Senator Warren Isn’t Done

      From The Hill:

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is asking Social Security Administration (SSA) Commissioner Frank Bisignano to provide additional information about the wait times for phone calls, amid reports of discrepancies in data.

In a letter sent Sunday evening to Bisignano, provided exclusively to The Hill, Warren followed up on her meeting with the SSA chief last Wednesday, when, the senator said, she secured a commitment from Bisignano “that SSA would undergo a public audit by the Inspector General regarding your phone call wait time data reporting and that you would publish additional wait time data.” …

She asked Bisignano to provide data by Aug. 11, including on the total number of calls received; details about the calls taken by an artificial intelligence tool — including the percentage of calls dropped, transferred, or ended without resolving the issue; the same details about the calls taken by a human customer service representative. …

Going On From Social Security To Even Bigger Things

Winant

      Tom Margenau, a retired Social Security employee, writes a syndicated newspaper column about Social Security. Most recently he has written about rereading a favorite book, Citizens of London by Lynne Olson, which is about Americans who lived and worked in London during World War II and helped Britain survive. One was Edward R. Murrow, who needs no introduction. Another was Averell Harriman, who was in charge of the Lend-Lease program. Without Lend-Lease Britain could not have survived the Blitz.  The Social Security connection comes with John Gilbert Winant, the U.S Ambassador to the U.K. The Social Security connection is that prior to heading to London Winant had been the first Chairman of what was then the Social Security Board during the agency’s formative years. Winant was a Republican, by the way.

Union Victory Over Trump Administration

      From Reuters:

A federal judge has dismissed a bid by President Donald Trump's administration to obtain judicial permission to cancel dozens of collective bargaining agreements between eight federal agencies and unions representing their employees.

Waco, Texas-based U.S. District Judge Alan Albright decided late on Wednesday that the agencies do not have legal standing to bring a lawsuit to implement a Trump executive order exempting them from having to bargain with unions, handing a victory to the American Federation of Government Employees union, or AFGE. …

The Departments of Defense, Justice, Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, Agriculture and Housing and Urban Development, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Social Security Administration, filed the lawsuit in March. The American Federation of Government Employees represents 800,000 federal workers. …

Are You Suggesting That There’s A Relationship Between Staffing And Productivity? That’s Crazy Talk!

      From a press release issued by Social Security’s Office of Inspector General:

From FY 2019 to FY 2023, Disability Determinations Services (DDS) productivity, measured as Production Per Work Year, decreased by 21 percent, and average processing time increased by 81 percent from 121 to 219 days. The lower productivity and increase in processing times coincided with the loss of key technical staff, including disability examiners who evaluate disability claims and make disability determinations in accordance with laws, regulations, policies, and procedures governing Social Security Administration (SSA) disability programs.

Social Security Always Chickens Out

     From CBS News:

The Social Security Administration said it will continue issuing paper checks to the retirement program's beneficiaries, backing away from a previously announced plan to switch all payments to electronic deposits after Sept. 30. 

On Wednesday, the Social Security Administration told CBS MoneyWatch it would continue issuing paper checks for beneficiaries, including recipients of retirement and disability benefits, who have no other means of getting payments. But the program will also emphasize the advantages of electronic transfers to its roughly 70 million beneficiaries in an effort to encourage check recipients to switch, a Social Security spokesperson added. ...

    I've seen this same scenario play out at least a couple of times before. 

OIG To Audit SSA Performance Data

     From Nextgov:

Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano has agreed to have the agency’s inspector general audit SSA’s performance data and to publicly report a broader list of data, Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said Wednesday after meeting with the longtime financial services businessman who took over the agency in May.

SSA changed what data it reports publicly last month, removing many metrics on the agency’s phone line — such as current call wait times, callback wait times, the number of people waiting on hold and the number waiting for a callback — and processing times for some benefits. 

“More accurate data is absolutely essential to oversight,” said Warren. “So we've gotten commitment to an independent audit of those data and much more transparency about the data that will be posted.” …

     Of course, the IG will take many months to do anything and may shade its report since it’s no longer truly independent.

Getting Better And Better

      The Social Security Administration has issued a press release touting “substantial progress in service delivery outcomes resulting from focused technology enhancements and process engineering.”

"The Stress Level Is Probably At A Maximum For Everyone"

     From NPR (they're still a thing, for now at least): 

The Social Security Administration (SSA) recently reassigned a small share of its field office employees in an effort to bring down lengthy wait times for the agency's national 800 phone number.

Workers at local offices across the country say these reassignments have been disruptive for staff and are increasing wait times for other services. ...

"They are in a deep hole of their own creation on staffing and so you just don't have enough people to go around to serve the public," said Kathleen Romig, a former SSA official who's now director of Social Security and disability policy at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP). "And so all you can really do at this point is rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic." ...

Nicole Morio, a field office worker in Staten Island and union representative, said these reassignments have forced front-line staff to take on more work.

"The stress level is probably at a maximum for everyone," Morio said. "At one point I think we were doing the work of 1.8 people. Now it seems as though we're doing the work of 10 to 15." ...

Bisignano Meeting With Senator Warren

     There's no word on the results but Senator Elizabeth Warren is reported to be meeting with Social Security Commissioner Bisignano sometime today.

Is This True?

     This comment was posted in response to my post about a representative payee problem in one case:

SSA has not even been reviewing the payee cases since at least January. I am one of the contractors that does payee reviews per the congressional mandate and SSA is not reviewing anything right now because they re-assigned all our people that review the payee cases. Our cases of misuse that we have done and our corrective action plans we've issued have thus far just been sitting there ignored. 

    Is this true? If so, this is a big problem brewing. 

Proposed Change In Public Assistance Household

      Last year Social Security changed its regulations to alter the definition of a public assistance household in ways that benefit Supplemental Security Income recipients. The agency has now submitted new proposed regulations to the Office of Management and Budget to alter what was done. We don’t have the text of what was submitted but I’ll take a guess that the Trump Administration wants to completely undo it.

     The odd thing about what has been posted is that it’s labeled an Executive Order but it certainly seems like it would have to be a change in the regs. Also, they don’t give prior notice of Executive Orders.

A Rep Payee Problem

     From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

On a chilly night in April 2023, Charlotte Walker got a text message. Her sister, 68-year-old Barbara Walker, was in jail and facing a felony.

Barbara's crime: starting a fire to keep warm. 

Charlotte was infuriated. Her sister, who has schizophrenia, should not have been living on the street at all.

Under an arrangement with the Social Security Administration known as the representative payee program, a staff member at the local nonprofit Outreach Community Health Centers was supposed to be assisting Barbara with housing.

That employee, Elizabeth Gabriel, was responsible for receiving Barbara's monthly disability benefit checks and using the money to help her secure food, medicine and housing. Since 2017, Gabriel had collected over $80,000 on Barbara's behalf, approximately $900 per month.

But over the past three years, Barbara’s siblings say their sister has consistently lived on and off the street while Gabriel has repeatedly failed to return phone calls, text messages and letters about their sister's care. They say neither she nor Outreach has provided insight into why Barbara was unhoused or how the funds were used. ...

 Outreach declined to comment on the Walker family's complaints, citing federal privacy laws. Gabriel did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Turmoil In Social Security Management?

     This is from a couple of posts on Bluesky from @altssa.altgov.info who purports to be a current Social Security employee. I cannot vouch for this person but this fits in with what I’ve heard elsewhere:

Deputy Commissioner of Operations Stephen Evangelista will reportedly be back at work on Monday after having a confrontation with commish Frankie over changes being made to operations and changes they want to make to operations that Evangelista is almost certainly correct about being bad for … [post one]

SSA operations and staffing. Frankie apparently doesn’t like being told he’s wrong, so his reaction to being given data and facts about why his ideas are 💩 was to call Evangelista a “fucking liar.” Allegedly, of course. Sounds like a guy you definitely want to work for, amiright???? 😑😑😑😑 [post two]

You Can Almost Feel Sorry For Lee Dudek

     Here are some interesting messages from the Secretary of Homeland Security to then Acting Commissioner of Social Security Leland Dudek back in April. Note the stern, commanding tone of the messages. Note also the complete lack of legal underpinning for what is being demanded. These were posted by Social Security itself. By the way, Dudek, who apparently has a Twitter account, liked and retweeted my tweet about this. As always, click on the images below to view full size.

 

SSA CIOs Receive To Do List From GAO

      A letter from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) (footnotes omitted):

July 7, 2025

Mr. Aram Moghaddassi

Chief Information Officer

Mr. Michael Russo

Chief Information Officer

Social Security Administration

6401 Security Boulevard 

Baltimore, MD 21235

Chief Information Officer Open Recommendations: Social Security Administration

I am writing to you both with respect to your roles as the Chief Information Officers (CIO) of the Social Security Administration (SSA). As an independent, non-partisan agency that works for Congress, GAO’s mission is to support Congress in meeting its constitutional responsibilities and help improve the performance and ensure the accountability of the federal government. Our work includes investigating matters related to the use of public funds, evaluating programs and activities of the U.S. Government at the request of congressional committees and subcommittees or on the initiative of the Comptroller General, and as required by public laws or committee reports. Our duties include reporting our findings and recommending ways to increase economy and efficiency in government spending. The purpose of this letter is to provide an overview of the open, publicly available GAO recommendations to SSA that call for the attention of the CIOs.

We identified recommendations that relate to the CIOs’ roles and responsibilities in effectively managing IT. They include strategic planning, investment management, and information security. We have previously reported on the significance of the CIO’s role in improving the government’s performance in IT and related information management functions. Your attention to these recommendations will help ensure the secure and effective use of IT at the agency.

Currently, SSA has 11 open recommendations that call for the attention of the CIOs. Each of these recommendations relates to a GAO High-Risk area: (1) Ensuring the Cybersecurity of the Nation or (2) Improving IT Acquisitions and Management. In addition, GAO has designated one of the 11 as a priority recommendation. Fully implementing these open recommendations agencies. They are highlighted because, upon implementation, they may significantly improve government operations, for example, by realizing large dollar savings; eliminating mismanagement, fraud, and abuse; or making progress toward addressing a high-risk or duplication issue. Since 2015, GAO has sent letters to selected agencies to highlight the importance of implementing such recommendations. Fully implementing these open recommendations could significantly improve SSA’s ability to deter threats and manage its critical systems, operations, and information. I have summarized selected recommendations here. See the enclosure for a full list, and additional details on the recommendations.

Ensuring the Cybersecurity of the Nation. SSA needs to take additional steps to secure the information systems it uses to carry out its mission. Specifically, we recommended that the agency fully implement all event logging requirements as directed by the Office of Management and Budget. Until SSA does so, there is increased risk that the agency will not have complete information from logs on its systems to detect, investigate, and remediate cyber threats.

Improving IT Acquisitions and Management. SSA needs to take steps to improve its IT operations, including developing a complete inventory of telecommunications assets and more consistently tracking software licenses. For example, we recommended that the CIO verify the completeness of SSA’s inventory of current telecommunications assets, and establish a process for ongoing maintenance of the inventory. Until SSA does so, the agency is more likely to experience delays and increased costs during telecommunications contract transitions. We also recommended that SSA consistently track software licenses that are currently in use and compare its inventories of software licenses in use to purchased licenses. Implementing this recommendation will allow SSA to take advantage of opportunities to reduce costs and better inform its investment decision-making.

Copies of this letter are being sent to the appropriate congressional committees and the Federal CIO. The letter will also be available at no charge on the GAO website at https://www.gao.gov. In addition, we sent a separate letter, related to agency-wide priority recommendations, to theCommissioner of SSA. 

If you have any questions or would like to discuss any of the recommendations outlined in this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me at marinosn@gao.gov. Contact points for our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be found on the last page of this letter. Our teams will continue to coordinate with your staff on addressing these 11 open recommendations that call for the attention of the CIOs. I appreciate SSA’s continued commitment and thank you for your personal attention to these important recommendations.

Nick Marinos

Managing Director

Information Technology and Cybersecurity

Commissioner Appears At 90th Anniversary Event

      A Twitter post by the Social Security Administration yesterday:

Today, Commissioner Bisignano spoke at the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI) event to commemorate the 90th anniversary of Social Security alongside James Roosevelt III, grandson of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Rep. Danny Davis, and Rebecca Vallas, CEO of NASI.

Does He Even Bother To Reply?

      Democratic Senators Wyden and Warren have written the Commissioner of Social Security asking for answers about the sudden reassignments of front line agency employees to answering 1-800 phone calls at about the same time that many metrics of agency functioning have been removed from public view. 

Mass Deportation Not So Good For Trust Funds

      From a report by the widely respected Penn Wharton Budget Model:

Deporting unauthorized workers over 10 years cuts Social Security revenue, raises deficits by $133 billion (10 yrs) and $884 billion (30 yrs). The Trust Fund depletes 6 months earlier; 75-year deficit rises by 0.25% of payroll.

Robbing Peter To Pay Paul

    From Government Executive:

In recent days, the Social Security Administration and its newly confirmed commissioner Frank Bisignano have celebrated “key milestones” in its quest to improve customer service, citing its implementation of the Social Security Fairness Act and addition of new automated service lanes on the agency’s 1-800 number and website. …

But workers at the agency say that as the agency shrinks by an aspired 7,000 workers this fiscal year, management is simultaneously scrambling to triage escalating workloads, causing a communications whiplash akin to being “gaslit,” one said. …

Beginning last week, the agency involuntarily reassigned 500 field office customer support representatives to handle calls to the 1-800 number indefinitely and without notice. By Tuesday, that number had risen to 1,000 reassignments. …

They’re robbing Peter to pay Paul,” [said the leader of the union that represents most Social Security employees].“And it really invalidates [Bisignano’s] whole theory and vision that SSA doesn’t need any more staff and that AI—or other technology—will solve the customer service problems at the agency and on the 1-800 number.” … 

Bisignano’s email to staff on Monday included an additional bit of news: performance bonuses will be distributed next month. Though Bisignano said he “directed” their distribution, the bonuses were originally slated to go out earlier this year but were delayed during the tenure of then-acting Commissioner Leland Dudek. …

A Free Lunch That Only Costs A Few Trillion Dollars But It Will All Be Paid Back 75 Years From Now

      From an op ed piece in the Washington Post by Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Tim Kaine (D-VV):

… We propose creating an additional investment fund — in parallel to the trust fund, not replacing it — that would be invested in stocks, bonds and other investments that generate a higher rate of return, helping keep the program from running dry.


We estimate that it would take a $1.5 trillion up-front investment into the fund to get it going, and we propose giving the fund 75 years to grow. The Treasury would temporarily shoulder the burden of providing benefits to Social Security beneficiaries — but when the new fund’s 75 years are up, it would pay the Treasury back and supplement payroll taxes to help fill the future gap.

The result? The consistent delivery of Social Security benefits for generations of Americans, and a reduction to the United States’ long-term indebtedness by up to 20 percent. …

OHO Gets 41,000 Hours Of OT In June And Still Loses Ground

 

Click on image to view full size

Service Is Just Getting Better And Better!

      From a press release:

 Social Security Administration (SSA) today announced significant progress in its ongoing efforts to improve customer service while handling record transaction volumes. Key milestones include:

• Completing over 3.1 million payments to all who were entitled under the Social Security Fairness Act (SSFA) five months ahead of schedule
• Continuing to upgrade SSA’s telephone technology nationwide, deploying the platform to 841 field offices, representing 70 percent of field offices nationwide
• Reducing the average speed of answer (ASA) on the 800 Number to 13 minutes, a 35 percent reduction compared to this time last year and over a 50 percent reduction compared to last year’s annual average
• Optimizing technology on the 800 Number so that 90 percent of calls handled are now served via automated self-service options or convenient callbacks, minimizing hold times
• Implementing a new service model in field offices that has reduced wait times about 10 percent for all customers year-over-year
• Decreasing the initial disability claims backlog by 25 percent, from a record high of 1.2 million cases pending last summer to 950,000 cases pending today
• Achieving a historic low of approximately 276,000 disability hearings pending, with customers experiencing wait times 60 days shorter than last summer
• Upgrading the my Social Security online portal to provide uninterrupted, 24/7 access to customers starting mid-July …

Playing Games With Stats Doesn’t Answer The Phone

      From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

For a “real lesson in torture,” try calling your local Social Security Administration office with a question.

That’s what Marcia Chestnut, a 62-year-old former housekeeper from Philadelphia, sardonically suggests.

In February, Chestnut — who lives with various disabilities — received a notice from the SSA saying her benefits would be cut off by April.

To find out why, Chestnut phoned her local SSA office every weekday for two months. She’d get put on hold for four hours or longer, then the calls would be disconnected.

“Live people don’t answer,” she said. “You’re not getting anybody who’ll talk to you.” …

We spend a lot of time calling Social Security offices on people’s behalf — sometimes 15 times a day,“ [a local advocate] said. ”We’re on hold for hours, then get AI bots spewing random information you never asked for before hanging up. …

Congressional Hearing Scheduled

      From a press release:

House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08), Social Security Subcommittee Chairman Ron Estes (KS-04), and Work & Welfare Subcommittee Chairman Darin LaHood (IL-16) announced today that the Subcommittees on Social Security and Work & Welfare will hold a joint hearing to discuss barriers to work and how policymakers can support opportunities for individuals with disabilities to establish, renew, or strengthen their connection to the workforce. The hearing will take place on Wednesday, July 9, 2025, at 2:00 PM …

     When they say “support”, they may mean “demand.”  Time limited benefits would be a possibility. That may be the next logical step for Republicans. Further work incentives are pointless. If you demand that they be half dead to get benefits, why are you surprised that they don’t go back to work? 

    Update: This hearing has already been postponed. No new date given. 

Another Data Point Suggesting That The Average Call Wait Time That Social Security Is Giving Out Is Wildly Optimistic

     A Las Vegas television station did its own checking on call wait times at Social Security and concludes that the 18.5 minute call wait time that the Social Security Administration is giving out is "wildly optimistic."

    I think this needs a Office of Inspector General investigation. 

Defining Deviancy Down

      The Washington Post has an article on the emails from Social Security to beneficiaries touting the passage of the “Big, Beautiful Bill.” Only at the end does it mention how wildly inappropriate the emails are. Apparently, they regard this as something only of interest to “left-leaning” groups.  It’s much the same with USA Today, CNN and NBC News. Apparently, the New York Times has taken off for the long weekend and hasn’t noticed the emails at all. By Sunday or Monday it may just be old news to them.

Happy Independence Day

 

Outrageous Abuse Of Social Security For Political Purposes

      I have trouble believing it but apparently Social Security sent out this e-mail yesterday to many Social Security benefits recipients. It didn’t go out to all of them. I’m on retirement benefits and I did not receive it. 

     This is wrong. It’s probably illegal. It’s misleading. The “Big Beautiful Bill” contains no provisions touching on the work done by the Social Security Administration.

Happy July 4th!

 

Taking A Hard Line On Ending Paper Checks

      From Emergency Message EM-25040 released yesterday:

… Effective immediately, the agency will comply with the relevant legal authorities in initial claims by removing references to an option to receive a paper check and directing people who insist on a paper check to apply to Treasury for a waiver.

In compliance with the law and enforced by the recently released EO, the following changes supersede current instructions in GN 02402.001and GN 02402.005 and are effective as of the date of this publication.

1. Updates to GN 02402.001

a. Section C bullet 4 is no longer applicable and has been removed. Effective immediately, technicians should no longer offer a temporary paper check option while waiting for Treasury contact regarding enrollment in electronic funds transfer (EFT) .
b. Section C bullet 5 should read:

“As of March 1, 2013, Title II beneficiaries and Title XVI recipients must select a form of electronic payment or if they allege a qualifying exemption, then apply for a waiver. Treasury is responsible for reviewing the request and making a determination. Instruct the individual to contact the U.S. Treasury Electronic Payment Solution Center at 1-800-967-5042. Currently, SSA cannot accept a waiver application or approve a waiver request. Treasury will contact the individuals directly once they make a determination.”

c. Additionally, field offices are no longer required to maintain a list of financial institutions in their servicing area. …

      This will be much harder to implement than it sounds.

Can We Trust Social Security’s Numbers?

From USA Today:

… Over the last several weeks, the agency has stopped making public 34 real-time performance metrics about things like how long they will have to wait to reach a live person on the phone, and how long applications for new senior benefits or social security benefits take to be approved. The metrics have been used for years to show how time-consuming it can be to reach a live person at certain locations or through the national 1-800 number, and as an accountability measure for the agency.

Instead the webpage now emphasizes how quickly problems can be resolved online, and says the "average speed of answer," which excludes callback wait time, is 19.2 minutes.

USA TODAY reporters called Social Security's 1-800 line multiple times over several days and found the wait times to be consistently over an hour. Multiple times they did not reach a live person before the line disconnected with no warning. …

Concerned that the information now available on the website didn't match what her staff was hearing from constituents, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren's staff began conducting its own test of the 1-800 number, making hourly phone calls from June 12 through June 20. 

In a letter Warren sent to Bisignano late on June 25, she called the results of her office survey "deeply troubling." Compared to the number available online, wait times averaged nearly an hour and 45 minutes and often exceeded three hours.

Data from the office survey showed that in 50 calls, more than 50% were never answered by a human. The majority ended when the caller was placed on hold and then the call dropped.

Of calls that were answered, 32% had wait times exceeding two hours. The average wait time was 102 minutes. …

  Jen Burdick, supervising attorney at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, said they haven't seen a reduction in call times.

"Social Security attorneys and paralegals from our office call SSA dozens of times every day. We are uniformly finding that we can't get placed into the queue, either because of system outages, phone disconnects, or AI chatbot issues.  When we do get put into the queue, wait times seem to be up from last year ‒ sometimes more than an hour.  …

     I’m fully expecting no further Congressional hearings on Social Security in this Congress but Commissioner Bisignano could still be subpoenaed to testify about this issue before a Social Security Subcommittee controlled by Democrats in 2027 even if he’s no longer Commissioner. 

Widespread Resurrections Reported But They’re Now Economic Zombies Instead

       From the New York Times:

The Trump administration has backed away from a maneuver in which it sought to classify thousands of living immigrants as dead in a critical Social Security database, part of a strategy to pressure them to self-deport.

In April, the Social Security Administration placed roughly 6,300 migrants whose legal status had been revoked on its “death master file,” a vital data set that gets distributed to banks, lenders and other financial institutions. …

[N]ow the Social Security Administration has reversed course, taking them off the list in a process known internally as being “resurrected,” according to S.S.A. and White House officials.

Instead, the Social Security numbers of the 6,300 migrants are being flagged as “unverified” in a system typically used by financial institutions to check the numbers. The website generates that response when a person’s Social Security number, name or date of birth do not match the agency’s records. That classification is typically used when a Social Security number may be fraudulent, erroneous or mistakenly associated with someone. …

The new approach was spearheaded by Frank Bisignano, the new commissioner of the agency who took over in May, according to an administration official. It comes after the initial decision to put migrants on the death list generated enormous controversy within the agency. At one meeting shortly after the decision was made, senior level S.S.A. officials had voiced widespread “policy, legal and data integrity” concerns about the approach, according to an email summarizing the meeting viewed by The New York Times. …

Social Security To End Enumeration At Birth?

      Whitney Wimbish has written a piece for The American Prospect predicting that the Social Security Administration will end enumeration at birth, the current process that almost automatically assigns a Social Security number to every child born in the U.S. Instead, parents would have to go through some application process. The point would be to prevent assigning Social Security numbers to the children of  non-citizens. 

     This could happen but there are obvious obstacles. Social Security isn’t remotely ready for the workload. Parents would be frustrated by the process. It’s all unconstitutional anyway. The 14th Amendment clearly says that virtually all children born in the U.S. are U.S. citizens. 

     The Supreme Court has said the courts can’t issue nationwide injunctions. Great. There are thousands of Social Security attorneys around the country ready to adjudicate this in every district in the country for the Equal Access to Justice Act fees. Easy money. By the time this issue is finally before the Supreme Court, the Trump Administration will wish it had been dealing with a nationwide injunction.