The Social Security Administration (SSA) is embarking on an “agency-wide organizational restructuring that will include significant workforce reductions,” according to an email sent to employees on Thursday evening and obtained by the Prospect. The email suggests that entire components of SSA, whose staffing is already at a 50-year low, would be abolished, with subsequent reduction-in-force orders.
The email gives employees until March 14 to decide among a number of options. They can seek voluntary reassignments, or “separate from federal service through retirement or resignation.” All employees at least 50 years of age with at least 20 years of service are being offered an “early out” voluntary early retirement; that’s lower than the typical benchmarks for federal employees. Early retirees are typically eligible for an annuity. In addition, between now and March 14 employees can take voluntary separation incentive payments of up to $25,000, depending on job classification. Employees are also encouraged in the email to resign and take the payout of their annual leave.
While the email does state that some employees may be reassigned from so-called “non-mission critical” positions to direct service positions at field offices and processing centers, it would be difficult to achieve large-scale reductions in force without impacting staff at the more than 1,200 field offices across the country. Already, one large hearing office in White Plains, New York has been shuttered, and there are unclear plans for other lease terminations on the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) website.
“The ongoing bloodbath at the Social Security Administration has only one goal: the total annihilation of Social Security,” said Alex Lawson of the advocacy group Social Security Works. “This is Wall Street and the billionaires destroying Social Security so they can give themselves trillions in tax handouts.”
THROUGHOUT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, agencies are preparing for large-scale firings. A memo from the Office of Management and Budget and Office of Personnel Management this week asked for agency “reorganization plans” by March 13. The SSA email is consistent with that directive.
In an indicator of internal turmoil at SSA, several regional commissioners, who were asked to carry out this plan, are retiring by the end of the week, according to GovExec. The Prospect has confirmed that Rick Lenoir, regional commissioner for the Chicago region, announced his retirement to staff.
That GovExec story quoted internal sources at SSA claiming that Dudek wanted to get headcount down to 50,000 employees, which comes out to a 15 percent reduction. But the Prospect’s sources remain firm that planned cuts are much deeper. One employee told the Prospect that field office employees believe that they will be caught up in the cuts.
Any level of cuts would be debilitating for an agency that is already experiencing a workforce crisis, threatening large delays in benefit adjudication and claims processing. Social Security hasn’t missed a benefit payment in 89 years, with already incredibly low overhead. But without an adequate workforce, getting people onto the benefits they’ve earned could be a challenge.
“This is Wall Street and the billionaires destroying Social Security so they can give themselves trillions in tax handouts.”
Several activities at processing centers are not automated, and require people to manually execute actions like getting people benefits after disability decisions, death payments, and other functions. Any claim that needs manual processing is subject to delay if large numbers of SSA employees are laid off.
For example, implementation of benefits under the recently passed Social Security Fairness Act, which agency leadership announced would be implemented as soon as April, could require manual processing in many cases. Those cases could be put in suspensions for lengthy periods if nobody is available to make the changes.
Meanwhile, administrative law judges (ALJs) who hear Social Security disability claims cases have also been subjected to threats of political pressure. Department of Justice chief of staff Chad Mizelle this week intimated that ALJs were effectively at-will employees who could be fired without cause, which is at odds with their status under the law.
If ALJs attempting to impartially decide cases are subject to termination, they would be at risk of having the outcomes of their cases determine their future employment. “Without this mechanism that ensures fairness, the agency can exert undue pressure on the adjudicator,” said Judge Som Ramrup, president of the Association of Administrative Law Judges, the union for hundreds of ALJs. “[They’re saying] ‘we want this particular outcome and if you don’t give this, we can fire you.’”
The White Plains hearing office closure is forcing ALJs to work out of other faraway offices, and forcing claimants who want an in-person hearing to travel as well. Under the current system, claimants decide whether a hearing should be in-person or virtual. While most claimants choose a virtual hearing, “the fact that you have to travel long distances will have a chilling effect on someone who wants an in-person hearing,” said Judge Ramrup.
While these offices are being closed and claimants dissuaded from in-person hearings, ALJs and their staffs are being told to return to the office. Judge Ramrup said that with the adoption of virtual hearings during the pandemic, the backlog of disability hearings has fallen as judges disposed of 1 million cases. But heavy travel times could threaten that, she said. “What is the point of going to hearing office, to sit on TV screens?” she said. “It’s clearly to punish people, to traumatize people, as [OMB director] Russ Vought has said.”
OTHER AGENCIES HAVE SEEN DRAMATIC PRONOUNCEMENTS of future workforce cuts. One component of the Labor Department, The Washington Post reported, could see cuts up to 90 percent. The Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, an anti-discrimination component of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, will be eliminated, according to a source, with staff cuts of 76 percent and shuttering of regional field offices. In a cabinet meeting yesterday, President Trump claimed that there would be a 65 percent workforce reduction at the Environmental Protection Agency, which officials later had to correct. Lawyers defending Medicare’s ability to negotiate lower prescription drug prices were also fired.
Federal employees are also being informed about potential changes in office locations. An email to IRS employees viewed by the Prospect explained that “leases across the United States are being terminated where possible” starting in June.
Some of the firings have backfired; the Trump administration has had to call back employees working on nuclear security and avian flu. Veterans, who make up around 30 percent of the federal workforce, have been particularly vocal about their job losses. Oversight agencies have labeled some firings as unlawful, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was ordered to restore the jobs of disabled veterans and military spouses, though that may be temporary.
The administration has stressed “precision” in future workforce reductions, although at the same time, the Department of Government Efficiency is reportedly developing a software tool to automate the entire process of firing.
