It’s time for acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek to resign, according to former Commissioner Michael Astrue.
What’s happening now with cuts at the Social Security Administration “is just wrong,” Astrue, a Republican who served under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, said Thursday during a briefing held by the National Academy of Social Insurance.
Former Commissioner Martin O’Malley, who served in President Joe Biden's administration and also participated in the briefing, added that there will be more than 7,000 employees leaving the agency — likely around 10,000 — and reiterated that he believed “most of the actions necessary to create a total system collapse” in Social Security have already been taken by Dudek and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
This week is the deadline for “either taking the cash or walking the plank into the possibility of being fired the next week,” O’Malley said. Dudek has instructed employees interested in being voluntarily reassigned or taking a buyout to notify the agency by Friday.
"Offices that perform functions not mandated by statute may be prioritized for reduction-in-force actions that could include abolishment of organizations and positions, directed reassignments, and reductions in staffing," Dudek said in the announcement sent to SSA employees.
Initial steps to reduce the workforce included offering a limited number of employees the opportunity to leave the agency under the Deferred Resignation Program and Voluntary Early Retirement, or VERA.
These employees will be paid through September.
"I think almost all of them are going to take it," O'Malley said. "Everybody who can is going to take that early out."
Backlash Ahead
Musk and DOGE are not operating “in the traditional paradigm of going in and trying to change an agency,” Astrue said. “I think it’s extremely destructive, because it is going to force out not just more employees than the agency can afford, but what happens is, in these circumstances, is a lot of your very best and most valuable are the ones who will leave because they are most in the demand someplace else.”
Added Astrue: “This is not going well; it’s going to get worse. I’m optimistic there will be some sort of backlash. By the time that backlash comes the new confirmed commissioner, whom I hope to God is in next week, is going to have an awful time repairing the damage.”
President Donald Trump has nominated Frank Bisignano to be the new SSA commissioner.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., sent a letter to Bisignano Tuesday warning that he’ll be responsible “if the Trump Administration’s attacks on the program result in failures or delays in getting Americans their Social Security checks.”
Despite Trump’s pledge that his administration “won’t touch” Social Security benefits, Warren and Wyden state that Musk and DOGE “directed the SSA to fire thousands of workers that Americans rely on to process and disburse Social Security checks — raising serious concerns about a potential interruption of benefits."
If confirmed, Warren and Wyden asked Bisignano to tell them by March 20 if he'd take direction from Musk or DOGE officials or if he'd deny them access to sensitive Social Security Administration payments systems as well as employees access to individuals’ sensitive personal health and financial information.
Indeed, seven DOGE staffers have read-only access to the SSA's master database of Social Security numbers, Bloomberg reported Thursday.
With Dudek at the helm, "we should be petrified about privacy and theft of data," Astrue said at the briefing. "Quite frankly, what the acting commissioner has said, what's happening, basically is a concession that literally illegal and inappropriate conduct is happening ... We can't put up with this much longer; it is a question not only of privacy ... but it's also a question of theft of that data as well."
Added Astrue: "It is time for this guy to go."
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