More On The Elevation Of Dudek — With A Small Role For Andrew Saul

      From Lisa Rein at the Washington Post:

Leaders of the Social Security Administration had just opened an investigation into a career employee they believed was improperly sharing information with Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team when President Donald Trump elevated the employee this week to acting commissioner. …

It’s not clear what data Dudek shared, but his actions raised enough alarm that he may have violated privacy and tax laws that senior officials placed him on paid leave as they launched their investigation. The officials, including attorneys in the general counsel’s office, also were notified late last week that Dudek had sent harassing emails to employees in the agency’s personnel and security divisions to rush them to let several engineers hired by DOGE start work and gain access to agency computer systems. The officials pushed back, saying that they had not completed background investigations into the new hires….

When the [DOGE] team learned last week that Dudek would be investigated, the chief information officer called acting commissioner Michelle King to demand answers. Then, on the Sunday of Presidents’ Day weekend, King received an email announcing that Trump had appointed Dudek to replace her. After being effectively forced out, King abruptly retired after three decades of service, the three individuals said. Her acting chief of staff, Tiffany Flick, also retired. …

In his first days on the job, Dudek has made bold moves that are highly unusual for someone in an acting role. He has slashed the agency’s research program, restructured numerous departments, announced the hires of new political staff, and made personnel changes that include the demotion of the career senior executive who was involved in placing him on paid leave last week, according to internal personnel announcements obtained by The Washington Post. …

“If I were them, I would want to get my permanent person in as fast as possible,” said Andrew Saul, who served as Social Security commissioner during Trump’s first term. “The situation is not good, obviously.”
Saul said he recommended King, then deputy commissioner for operations, to Trump’s transition team after his election in November. “I knew she’d hold the ship down.” …

Picture Of The Week

 

Office Of Analytics Review And Oversight Dissolved

 

    Update: And here's the press release.

SSA Ending External Research

      A press release:

The Social Security Administration today announced the termination of their Retirement and Disability Research Consortium (RDRC) cooperative agreements. This action supports the President's Executive Order, Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing.

“Terminating our RDRC cooperative agreements aligns with President Trump's priorities to end fraudulent and wasteful initiatives and contracts,” said Social Security's Acting Commissioner Lee Dudek. “We will continue to root out waste and abuse to earn back America's trust and confidence in our agency.”

Social Security previously entered into RDRC cooperative agreements with research centers that included a focus on research addressing DEI in Social Security, retirement, and disability policy. Terminating these cooperative agreements results in about $15 million dollars in cost savings for hardworking Americans in fiscal year 2025.

     My recollection is that money has been specifically appropriated for external research. If so,this would be an example of Presidential impoundment, a very dubious legal theory. I believe this hurts Boston College and the University of Michigan the hardest.

Trump Administration Says ALJs May Be Fired At Will

      From the New York Times:

The Trump administration told Congress on Thursday that it believed President Trump had the constitutional power to summarily fire administrative law judges at will, despite a statute that protects such officials from being removed without a cause like misconduct. …

To insulate the officials from political interference, Congress enacted a statute that says disciplinary action, including firings, may be taken against such judges “only for good cause established and determined by the Merit Systems Protection Board on the record after opportunity for hearing before the board.”

Ms. Harris’s letter to Congress also brought to wider attention that the Justice Department had said it would no longer defend the constitutionality of the law protecting administrative law judges in a little-noticed Feb. 11 filing in an appeals court case. …

     The Social Security Administration employs the vast majority of federal ALJs. 

The Rise Of Dudek

    From the Wall Street Journal:

Leland Dudek had spent more than a decade at the Social Security Administration, including time overseeing a fraud investigation office, but was largely unknown to senior executives at the agency.

Just last week, in a now-deleted LinkedIn post, Dudek said that he was put on administrative leave for cooperating with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

“I confess. I bullied agency executives, shared executive contact information, and circumvented the chain of command to connect DOGE with the people who get stuff done,” he wrote in the post, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. …

[Michelle] King was informed in an email Sunday morning that Dudek had been elevated to acting commissioner and she decided to retire from the agency after three decades, some of the people said.

Dudek’s elevation to acting commissioner followed a tumultuous period in which members of Social Security’s leadership team grew concerned about the manner in which he was helping DOGE personnel, some of the people said. They had received information that Dudek had been sharing information with nonagency personnel beginning in December, before Trump’s inauguration, and heard complaints from career staff who said he had pressured them to help DOGE representatives, these people said. …

Only 41 Employees Given Job Ultimatum

      From Government Executive:

The Social Security Administration on Thursday gave 41 probationary employees in the agency’s headquarters and regional offices the choice to be reassigned to frontline agency work or to get caught up in the ongoing governmentwide purge of recently hired or promoted workers….

Rich Couture, spokesman for the American Federation of Government Employees’ Social Security General Committee, which represents more than 40,000 SSA employees, confirmed the initiative and said while the union appreciates giving probationary workers who weren’t subject to the agency’s exemptions a chance to stay employed, the agency needs more workers, not fewer.

“We are grateful that the probationary employees on the front line were not terminated,” he said. “With 10,000 new beneficiaries each day and a 50-year low in staffing, now is the time to be adding to our frontline staff . . . Should all [of the 41 probationary employees] accept reassignment, we still need to prevent attrition and add 20,0000 new hires to be able to deliver Americans their earned benefits efficiently and accurately.”

Can Anyone Confirm This?