Chasing An Imaginary Problem

     A press release:

Social Security Addressing Aged Records
Actions Support President’s Priorities

The 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.

Early Afternoon Roundup -- News Coming In Hot And Heavy

     Here's your early afternoon roundup of Social Security news:

• Federal officials have taken down that list of federal properties for sale but a new list is "Coming Soon."
• AARP is urging its members to contact their representatives in Congress to tell them that Social Security must be protected.
• 152 House Democrats have written the Acting Commissioner of Social Security to express "grave concern" over office closings and workforce reductions.
• No link on this but House Democrats plan to introduce three bills tomorrow to keep Social Security offices open, block DOGE access to Social Security data and to compel the President to account for DOGE activities at Social Security to this point.
• Jack Svahn, former Commissioner of Social Security, thinks that Congress won't act on Social Security's long term funding problems until things become critical. He's right. There's no point wringing your hands over it today. Nothing will happen for several years. 
• A current Social Security employee talks movingly about the trauma being inflicted on agency employees.
• A retired Social Security employee writes about the cuts at his old agency. 

    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.

Headquarters Buildings Listed For Sale

       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

     The Trump Administration has talked about relocating the headquarters of federal agencies outside the area of the nation’s capitol. I don’t believe any such relocations have been announced yet. That shoe or set of shoes has yet to drop. I’m not saying that’s what these listings are about. I don’t know.

Did You Really Expect That Trump Would Tell The Truth About Social Security?

      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!

“A Prelude To Privatization”

      From Government Executive:

… 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. …

"Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars In Savings"

     A press release:

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.

Telework Ending For Non-Union Employees On March 5 But The Notice Was Sent To All Employees

 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.

It’s All Joe Biden’s Fault