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leland dudek
'Americans Are Rightfully Furious': Social Security Defenders Not Falling for Partial Trump Walk-Back
"This partial victory shows that when the American people fight for our Social Security, we can win," said one advocate. "We are only going to get louder!"
Mar 27, 2025
Defenders of the Social Security Administration this week welcomed the delay and rollback of some policy changes at the federal agency while also reiterating the threat posed by U.S. President Donald Trump and the billionaire leader of his Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk.
As part of what critics condemn as "DOGE-manufactured chaos," SSA intended to require anyone who couldn't verify their identity online through "my Social Security" to do so in-person, beginning next week, while planning to shutter offices across the country. The agency announced Wednesday that the start date has been pushed to April 14, and people applying for Medicare, Social Security Disability Insurance, or Supplemental Security Income are now exempt from the rule and can complete their claim over the telephone.
Acting SSA Commissioner Leland Dudek claimed Wednesday that "we have listened to our customers, Congress, advocates, and others, and we are updating our policy to provide better customer service to the country's most vulnerable populations."
Meanwhile, opponents of Trump and Musk's attacks on the agency—widely seen as a push toward privatization—framed the development as a "good first step" but "not enough," as AARP chief advocacy and engagement officer Nancy LeaMond said in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch.
"Our members nationwide have told us this change would require hundreds of miles and hours of travel merely to fill out paperwork," LeaMond said. "SSA should be prioritizing customer service effectiveness and efficiency, and as older Americans tell us, the announcement requiring visits caused confusion and distress."
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said on the Musk-owned social media platform X: "Delaying a bad plan—which effectively denies people their Social Security—is insufficient. Elon Musk's DOGE must take their hands off Social Security."
Warren also acknowledged the positive impact of people calling out the assault on the SSA, adding: "Keep the pressure on Republicans in Congress and Donald Trump to reverse these cuts. YOUR voice makes a difference."
Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, similarly said that "while it is good that a bad policy is being postponed—and that some of the least mobile, most vulnerable groups are now exempted—it is still bad policy. There was no reason to end the validation of identity by phone, and limiting it in any way creates an unnecessary hurdle for seniors and families claiming their earned benefits."
Richtman also took aim at those in charge, declaring that "the circus at the Social Security Administration continues under the 'leadership' of acting Commissioner Leland Dudek," who is at the helm of the agency while the Senate considers Trump's nominee, financial services executive Frank Bisignano.
"It very much appears that the decision-makers at SSA—under the influence of Elon Musk and DOGE—are making up policy as they go along, and then are surprised when there is understandable public blowback, forcing them to make ad hoc adjustments like this one," he added. "This is the opposite of the competent, responsible stewardship of Social Security that the public deserves. Dudek, Musk, and DOGE are creating nothing but distress and confusion for the millions of people who depend on these benefits to get by, while risking irreparable damage to the Social Security system."
The Trump administration's attempt to dismantle the SSA—including with cuts to personnel and phone services—is already having an effect, with the agency website crashing four times over 10 days in the past month, and callers waiting 4-5 hours on hold.
Trump & Musk are: -Lying about Social Security fraud -Making destructive cuts to SSA staffing and phone-based services -Threatening the security of people's personal information by giving DOGE access to sensitive SSA data Social Security is in crisis entirely due to them.
— Robert Reich (@rbreich.bsky.social) March 26, 2025 at 4:00 PM
"Americans are rightfully furious about the Trump administration making it harder for them to access their earned Social Security benefits," Nancy Altman, president of the group Social Security Works, said Thursday. "They are making their voices heard at town halls and rallies across the country, and calling their members of Congress. Now, they've forced the White House to partly walk back a needless burden."
Dudek tweaking the new verification rules, Altman said, "is just a starting point. The damage the Trump administration is doing to Social Security remains immense. The White House needs to roll back all of these senseless burdens, cancel plans to close dozens of field offices, and fully staff the Social Security Administration instead of pushing out thousands of employees."
"However, even this partial victory shows that when the American people fight for our Social Security, we can win," she added. "We are only going to get louder!"
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'Prelude to Privatizing Social Security': Cuts Came Straight From White House
As the Social Security Administration prepared to cut phone services for beneficiaries, the acting administrator admitted: "The reason that we're on this timeline is because we received a request from the White House."
Mar 25, 2025
The Trump administration's massive cuts to the agency that oversees Social Security benefits that are the primary source of income for 40% of American senior citizens came directly from the White House, the agency's acting administrator confirmed Monday as staffers across the country struggled to serve beneficiaries.
The cuts were the subject of a letter sent Monday by U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) to President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Social Security Administration (SSA), Republican donor and financial technology executive Frank Bisignano—with the two lawmakers voicing concerns shared by many economic justice advocates that the Trump administration is "setting up the SSA for failure."
Warren and Wyden both serve on the Senate Finance Committee, which held a confirmation hearing for Bisignano on Tuesday. In a statement at the hearing, Wyden warned against confirming Bisignano, considering his history of "taking over troubled businesses and... firing hundreds or thousands of workers."
"This approach is a prelude to privatizing Social Security and handing it over to private equity," said Wyden. "Improving Social Security doesn't start with shuttering the offices that handle modernization, anti-fraud activities, and civil rights violations. It doesn't start with indiscriminately firing or buying out thousands of workers, and it doesn't start with restricting customer service over the phone and drawing up plans to close field and regional offices."
But as acting SSA Administrator Leland Dudek told advocacy groups Monday, the "rapid rollout" of changes to the phone services relied on by many beneficiaries was ordered by the White House.
"He said, 'The reason that we're on this timeline is because we received a request from the White House,'" one person who was in the meeting toldHuffPost Monday, with two other sources confirming the account.
Advocates were alarmed last week when Dudek announced Social Security beneficiaries will no longer be able to verify their identities over the phone starting March 31, and will instead have to use an online system or go to one of the field and regional offices across the country.
But the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which Trump named billionaire donor and tech CEO Elon Musk to lead, compiled a list in recent weeks of 47 Social Security offices that it plans to close this year—closures that are expected to strain the agency employees who are left after DOGE pushed to cut 12% of the workforce.
The Washington Postreported Tuesday that the cuts have contributed to the SSA website crashing four times over 10 days in the past month, barring beneficiaries—who include people with disabilities and children of deceased parents as well as retirees—from accessing their accounts.
Phone calls to the agency have surged in recent weeks as many of Social Security's 73 million beneficiaries wonder whether their monthly payments will be slashed, with callers facing hold times of four to five hours in some cases, and a callback function that was available only 3 out of 12 times that the Post called the SSA.
"With Americans already waiting hours to get connected with Social Security on the phone, it is outrageous that under this new policy, older Americans, especially those in rural areas, will have to call, wait on hold for possibly hours, make an appointment, or even take a day off work to claim the benefits they have worked for and earned," Nancy LeaMond of the American Association of Retired Persons told Dudek in a letter regarding the cuts to phone services scheduled to begin next week.
Dudek told stakeholders in the Monday meeting that "in normal times, something like this would take two years to roll out."
HuffPostreported that no training has begun to help SSA staffers cope with thousands more field office visits than they are accustomed to, and the agency said training is planned for the week, giving employees just days to prepare for the loss of phone verification.
One former SSA official who retired this month amid the spiraling chaos at the agency told the Post that Trump administration leaders are "creating a fire to require them to come and put it out."
The White House has denied beneficiaries will see a loss in their benefits, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt saying, "Any American receiving Social Security benefits will continue to receive them."
Meanwhile, Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) cheerfully told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that while senior citizens can expect to continue receiving Social Security, "we can't be afraid of this conversation" about "a change to Social Security" that would cut off access to the program for his own children's generation. Curtis said he plans to soon introduce legislation pushing for a "change" to the program.
The change, said Social Security Works (SSW), will mean "massive cuts to your benefits so that billionaires don't have to pay their fair share."
Even before Trump and Musk began spreading false claims about rampant Social Security fraud—insisting without evidence that millions of deceased Americans receive benefits, which Bosignano admitted in Tuesday's hearing is far from true—Republicans have consistently claimed that the program will soon be insolvent, despite the fact that it is able to pay 100% of benefits for the next 12 years and more than three-quarters of benefits after that, according to SSW.
On Tuesday, the advocacy group said, Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee were "misrepresenting the facts about fraud in Social Security."
"OVER 99% of all Social Security payments are made accurately and on time," said the group. "Congress needs to focus on protecting and expanding benefits, not billionaire profits."
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'Despicable': Trump Official Threatens Total Social Security Shutdown Over DOGE Ruling
"Rather than comply with a lawful court order, he wants to see millions of families, retirees, and disabled individuals go hungry, suffer, and potentially lose their homes all to curry favor with anti-worker billionaires."
Mar 21, 2025
Defenders of the Social Security Administration on Friday blasted acting Commissioner Leland Dudek's threat to shut down the agency in response to a federal judge cutting off the Department of Government Efficiency's access to SSA data.
U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander wrote Thursday that "the DOGE team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA." She issued a temporary restraining order targeting affiliates of the government-gutting entity created by Republican President Donald Trump and led by Big Tech CEO Elon Musk, the richest person on the planet.
While the advocacy and labor groups behind the lawsuit celebrated the order from Hollander—who was appointed to the District of Maryland by former President Barack Obama—Dudek responded to the ruling with a threat to shut down the agency entirely.
"My anti-fraud team would be DOGE affiliates. My IT staff would be DOGE affiliates," Dudek told Bloomberg. "As it stands, I will follow it exactly and terminate access by all SSA employees to our IT systems."
"Now, like a child who didn't get his way, he is threatening to shut down Social Security."
Dudek—who is leading the SSA until the U.S. Senate decides whether to confirm Trump's nominee, former Fiserv CEO Frank Bisignano—said he would ask the judge to immediately clarify her order, adding: "Really, I want to turn it off and let the courts figure out how they want to run a federal agency."
Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)—which filed the suit with the Alliance for Retired Americans and the American Federation of Teachers—said in a Friday statement that "for almost 90 years, Social Security has never missed a paycheck—but 60 days into this administration, Social Security is now on the brink."
"Acting Commissioner Leland Dudek has proven again that he is in way over his head, compromising the privacy of millions of Americans, shutting down services that senior citizens rely on, and planning debilitating layoffs, all in service to Elon Musk's lies," he continued. "Now, like a child who didn't get his way, he is threatening to shut down Social Security. Rather than comply with a lawful court order, he wants to see millions of families, retirees, and disabled individuals go hungry, suffer, and potentially lose their homes all to curry favor with anti-worker billionaires. It's despicable."
"Even for this administration, this is a new low. Project 2025 didn't dare mention Social Security, but we always knew they would put it on the table," he added, citing a Heritage Foundation-led blueprint for remaking the government. "We've fought back efforts by anti-union extremists and billionaires to privatize and gut Social Security before, and we'll do it again. Workers paid into this program; it belongs to us."
Groups that are not part of the case also took aim at Dudek on Friday. Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, called the threat "to hold hostage" the earned benefits of over 70 million people "inexcusable" and "yet another example of the Trump administration's hostility to American seniors."
"Dudek is throwing a temper tantrum—claiming that if DOGE can't access American's data, neither can anyone else," he said. "No one in the federal government has the breadth of access to data that Elon Musk has demanded. Social Security employees' access is compartmentalized and only made available on a 'need-to-know' basis, and those with access to the data go through rigorous screening, training, and are subject to fines and/or jail time for violating this policy."
Richtman asserted that "Musk's continued effort to justify his actions by doubling down on thoroughly debunked claims of 'massive fraud' at SSA are being laid bare as a mere pretext for acquiring every American's personal information—which could then be used as weapons against anyone who disagrees with the Trump administration's actions."
Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, declared that "Dudek's leadership has been the darkest in Social Security's nearly 90-year history. He has sown chaos and destruction... His highest loyalty is to Elon Musk and Donald Trump, not to the beneficiaries that the agency is meant to serve. Singlehandedly, he has taken the security out of Social Security."
"Members of Congress who remain silent are complicit. The Trump-nominated commissioner, who will have his confirmation hearing next week, is no better. In fact, he proudly calls himself 'a DOGE person,'" she warned of Bisignano.
"Every member of Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, must condemn the destruction of our Social Security system and demand that the Trump administration follow Judge Hollander's order," Altman added. "They must make it clear that no president—even one who thinks he is a king—can shut down our Social Security system."
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