The Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, headed by Elon Musk, continues to come under fire from lawmakers and the courts — with the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare telling me Monday that Musk and DOGE "are attempting to radically downsize" the Social Security Administration and cut its funding.
After reports surfaced last week that SSA is in DOGE's crosshairs, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., raised new concerns in a letter Friday to acting Social Security commissioner Michelle King.
"As the nation’s largest benefit-paying agency to more than 70 million seniors, people with disabilities, and children, the Social Security Administration is the hub for storing Americans’ most sensitive medical and financial information," Wyden said in a statement. "DOGE’s access to SSA’s data system is an invasion of both Americans’ financial security and privacy — including people’s bank and credit information, Social Security numbers, birth and marriage certificates, and citizenship status."
On Monday, lawmakers joined Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., outside Social Security headquarters in Baltimore to call for "protecting the integrity of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid" following reports that DOGE has accessed the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and intends to access SSA next.
“Musk and DOGE are attempting to radically downsize the Social Security Administration," Dan Adcock, director or government relations and policy at the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, told me Monday in an email.
"SSA is already underfunded and understaffed," Adcock continued. "Musk and DOGE want to unilaterally cut funding for the agency and massively lay off workers that administer Americans’ earned benefits."
The "customer service that nearly 70 million people rely on is going to suffer greatly," Adcock continued, with longer wait times on the SSA’s 1-800 phone number, and more delays with in-person assistance at SSA field offices.
Further, such cuts will mean that "delays for Social Security Disability Insurance hearings will increase, which means more disabled claimants will die before their claims are adjudicated," Adcock said.
Adcock said his group "along with other advocates and Democratic lawmakers, are fighting back against Musk and DOGE’s largely illegal and unconstitutional campaign to interfere with the administration of Americans’ Social Security benefits.”
In late January, federal workers, including SSA employees, received an email from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, offering “deferred resignation.”
"The email, which arrived under the subject line 'Fork in the Road,' implies that federal employees who choose not to resign may be subject to future layoffs and also would have to conform to rigorous, new rules that the administration intends to impose — including an end to remote work and mandatory 5-days per week in the office," NCPMM said. "Workers’ advocates say that the email is an attempt to intimidate employees into resigning."
DOGE Caucus
Meanwhile, Rep. Val Hoyle, D-Ore., announced on Feb. 5 that she has left the DOGE Caucus. “My responsibility as a Representative is to be a good steward of my constituents’ tax dollars, and I take that job seriously," Hoyle said in a statement. “However, it is impossible for us to do that important work when unelected billionaire Elon Musk and his lackeys are set on burning down the government — and the law — to line his own pockets and rip off Americans across the country who depend on government services to live with dignity."
Said Hoyle: “From risking the delivery of Social Security payments, to corruptly accessing Americans’ personal data at the Department of Treasury, and using intimidation tactics to terrorize the hard-working public servants who deliver these services, it is apparent that he sees DOGE’s work is to find funds to give tax breaks for billionaires at the expense of working people, not about doing right by them.”
In a Feb. 8 post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Musk said: "To be clear, what the @DOGE team and @USTreasury have jointly agreed makes sense is the following: ... Yesterday, I was told that there are currently over $100B/year of entitlements payments to individuals with no SSN or even a temporary ID number. If accurate, this is extremely suspicious."
Legal Challenges
On Saturday, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer in Manhattan temporarily blocked Musk's government efficiency team from accessing the Treasury's payment system, citing a risk that sensitive information could be improperly disclosed after a coalition of Democratic attorneys general from 19 U.S. states filed a lawsuit late Friday, Reuters reported.
On Sunday, the Trump administration said that Engelmayer's order blocking Musk’s government efficiency team from accessing Treasury Department payment systems wrongfully prevents Bessent from doing his job, Bloomberg reported.
In another suit, brought Feb. 4 by two labor unions and an advocacy group for retired union members, U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Ketelly issued an interim order limiting DOGE's access to the Treasury data.
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