Lawmakers Send Letter Amidst Widespread Website Outages, Benefit Disruptions
Senate Special Committee on Aging Ranking Member Kirsten Gillibrand wrote to Acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek to demand that the Social Security Administration (SSA) address ongoing issues with the SSA website and reverse its reported plans to worsen the situation by firing up to 50 percent of employees from the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO). Gillibrand was joined on the letter by Senate Banking Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren and Senate Finance Ranking Member Ron Wyden.
OCIO is responsible for maintaining the agency’s benefit claims processing systems, managing SSA.gov and SSA’s online benefits portal, and protecting Social Security recipients’ sensitive information. In February, the agency announced plans to reduce its workforce by over 12 percent. Hundreds more staff firings will happen at OCIO, which has been directed to cut half of its staff. These cuts are expected to worsen the ongoing issues with SSA’s website and online portals, including recipients being incorrectly labeled as “not receiving payments” and losing access to their account histories.
“It is unsurprising that weeks after you allowed DOGE to invade SSA, improperly access SSA data, and announce closures of Social Security offices, our constituents began having problems accessing their benefits…We are concerned that these recurring issues will impact the benefits of our constituents—many of whom rely on Social Security to pay rent or put food on the table,” wrote the lawmakers.
The cuts to the agency also expose SSA to system vulnerabilities, risking Americans’ data to hackers and foreign agents seeking to obtain private information. In addition to the dozens of senior SSA officials with centuries’ worth of experience who have resigned or retired, SSA’s entire cybersecurity leadership was also part of the exodus.
“Leaving Americans’ most sensitive information unguarded places immeasurable financial and economic harm on our most vulnerable…We ask that you immediately cease all OCIO firings and act swiftly to restore SSA system and website functionality to prevent any further disruption of…benefits,” concluded the lawmakers.
The senators asked Dudek to provide clarity on the impact of cuts to OCIO, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) role in the firings, and the acting commissioner’s plan to ensure technical knowledge of internal systems is not lost during workforce reductions.
The letter is the latest in a series of actions by Senator Gillibrand to protect Social Security from the Trump administration’s efforts to cut the program. Last week, Senator Gillibrand led a letter with Senator Ron Wyden calling on the Trump administration and DOGE to stop their attacks on Social Security, specifically calling out SSA’s staffing cuts, plans for indiscriminate closures of field offices around the nation, and attempts to limit phone services. Earlier this year, Gillibrand also demanded answers from the administration about its plans to close the Social Security office in White Plains, NY; slammed the Trump administration for its efforts to “buy out” SSA employees; and joined elected officials in New York to call on the administration to stop its repeated efforts to cut Social Security.
The full text of the letter can be found here.
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