An office that helps members of Congress serve Social Security recipients is facing cuts by up to 94 percent.
A former agency employee told the publication Government Executive that the Social Security Administration’s Office of Legislation and Congressional Affairs has reduced its worker count from around 50 to just three employees.
“While the administration is touting the savings and boosted efficiency for beneficiaries, reports like this of offices with significant cuts in workforce do offer cause for concern,” Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor for the University of Tennessee at Martin, told Newsweek.
“No one is refuting the need for more efficiency that makes the process easier for recipients. At the same point, massive reductions in staff over a short period of time could present many problems, particularly for those served from the field offices most affected.”
Why It Matters
The SSA has faced major cuts under the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency. The agency got rid of roughly 7,000 staff members, bringing total employee numbers to about 50,000.
This could impact services and benefits for the more than 70 million Americans who rely on the monthly payments.
What To Know
The Office of Legislation and Congressional Affairs helps lawmakers and their offices with technical assistance related to Social Security legislation, among other support services.
However, an anonymous former OLCA employee said the department is experiencing significant cuts, potentially affecting how well the agency can help Congress identify Social Security problems in certain areas.
“Some members of Congress say ‘I shouldn’t have to be asking SSA. Members of the public should get a direct answer from SSA and not have to ask me to get help from SSA.’ And that’s absolutely true,” the employee told Government Executive. “When you don’t have a congressional affairs staff really plugged into what the Hill is saying, what the Hill is hearing…if you don’t have that component in SSA, then I think Congress loses out.”
In February, the employee said OLCA workers were told they needed to seek reassignments to avoid being laid off, but that after this, the remaining 35 workers were told there wouldn’t be additional cuts.
However, once April hit, the OLCA only had three workers left due to reassignments and voluntary leaving incentives.
“You have the work that was previously done by 50 people [and officials are] expecting to have three people be able to do it,” the employee said.
While employees have been instructed to contact other offices to help with their caseloads, Democrats have already issued alerts that employees are receiving “bounce-back emails and no-replies from [agency] legislative liaison offices that were previously responsive to congressional inquiries.”
“This is becoming a math problem,” Kevin Thompson, the CEO of 9i Capital Group and the host of the 9innings podcast, told Newsweek. “You cannot reduce staffing by thousands while 10k are turning 65 daily. Eventually there is a substantial spillover effect where people are left without, much like I tried to contact the system today and it took me 5 minutes just to get through all of the prompts, and I am no longer provided a hold time estimation.”
Newsweek reached out to the SSA for comment.
What People Are Saying
An SSA spokesperson told Government Executive: “We conduct congressional affairs work across the agency including at field offices working on local constituent services for members of Congress, employees in finance who work closely with our appropriators and our dedicated headquarters legislative affairs staff. We continue to respond to congressional inquiries, provide regular briefings to congressional staff and will adjust our resources as needed to continue to fulfill these responsibilities.”
The former OLCA employee told Government Executive: “This whole experience has put a lot of us in an existential crisis as to whether or not we mattered at any point. Some of our managers [said] ‘Even though you’re being told you’re not essential, you do matter. You do matter. And just remember, you matter,'” they said. “It was really sad just watching people be like ‘Okay, why am I doing this?'”
Thompson told Newsweek: “The reality is the administration gutted agencies it truly did not understand without regard for the people it would impact. This is the new ‘disruptor’ culture seen in the tech industry where people want to just run fast and break things. Well, that is good in the tech industry but does not work well when dealing with social programs.”
What Happens Next
As the SSA faces major transitions as it moves toward automation, there will likely continue to be “growing pains,” Thompson said.
“Eventually the system will become fully automated and, in theory, more efficient. But that transition takes time,” Thompson said. “For now, we’re facing serious growing pains, and it’s seniors who will feel the brunt of it.”
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