Warren, Wyden to Social Security Commissioner Nominee: “You Will Be Responsible” for Cutting Americans’ Benefits As Result of Trump Admin Gutting Agency
Lawmakers press on impacts of massive Social Security staffing cuts, office closures
“The net result [of these cuts] could be a disaster: more overpayments and waste in the system, at the same time that Americans who have earned their Social Security benefits are unable to receive them.”
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Ranking Member on the Senate Finance Committee, sent a letter to Frank Bisignano, President Trump’s nominee for Social Security Commissioner, regarding the threats to American’s Social Security benefits from the Trump Administration’s efforts to gut Social Security Administration (SSA) staffing.
“As President Trump’s nominee for SSA Commissioner, you will be responsible if the Trump Administration’s attacks on the program result in failures or delays in getting Americans their Social Security checks,” wrote the lawmakers.
Despite President Trump’s promises that his administration “won’t touch” Social Security benefits, Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (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.
Last week, SSA announced plans to cut over 7,000 employees and close regional offices. Public reports indicate that SSA may further reduce its workforce to just 50 percent of its current size. Social Security offices nationwide receive about 170,000 in-person visits and 250,000 calls each day from Americans who need help with their benefits. SSA workers have already reported that wait times for basic services have dramatically increased, by hours in some cases.
“These new cuts could result in millions of Americans being cheated out of the money they earned throughout their careers, while limiting SSA’s ability to catch and correct payment errors,” continued the lawmakers, raising concerns that the cuts are a backdoor effort to dismantle the SSA — led by Elon Musk, who has called Social Security a "Ponzi scheme."
In the 1980s, substantially smaller cuts to the Social Security workforce resulted in 80,000 eligible Americans failing to receive their benefits.
“The net result [of these cuts] could be a disaster: more overpayments and waste in the system, at the same time that Americans who have earned their Social Security benefits are unable to receive them,” concluded the lawmakers.
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