Acting Social Security head threatens to shut down agency

[TheAppletons]

"Acting Social Security commissioner Leland Dudek said Friday that he is consulting with agency lawyers and the Justice Department as he threatens to shut down the agency in response to a court ruling blocking Elon Musk’s team from accessing sensitive taxpayer data."

 

and

 

"Everything in this agency is PII,” Dudek said. “Unless I get clarification, I’ll just start to shut it down. I don’t have much of a choice here. Dudek first made his threat to close down the agency during a Bloomberg News interview Thursday night.

 

Such a dramatic move would be unprecedented in the agency’s history and would immediately begin halting benefit payments for millions of Americans."

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/ar-AA1Bpp38

[Jingthing]

Atrocious. It's too bad the pain from this can't be limited only to those who foolishly asked for this -- Trump voters and maga cult members. But as a notorious republican legislator once quipped about his airport bathroom activities -- damage from maga fascism has a wide stance.

[FritsSikkink]

Trump is doing great: Trump’s commerce secretary: Don’t complain if we don’t send your Social Security check

[expat_4_life]

4 hours ago, TheAppletons said:

"Acting Social Security commissioner Leland Dudek said Friday that he is consulting with agency lawyers and the Justice Department as he threatens to shut down the agency in response to a court ruling blocking Elon Musk’s team from accessing sensitive taxpayer data."

 

I thought it was illegal for even the President to shutdown an agency, plenty of court rulings of late ordering employee re-hires, etc, etc,  He is clearly confused about the court order.

Mr. Dudek seems exasperated about how to proceed with DOGE being blocked access to fulfill their mandate.  He has no authority to shut SSA down and has subsequently backtracked on his remarks after receiving clarification about the court order.

You can stop the hand wringing over a SSA shutdown or carry on, your choice.
It is not the Admins policy and would be political suicide. 
I suggest ignoring such nonsense.

[riclag]

4 minutes ago, expat_4_life said:

 

I thought it was illegal for even the President to shutdown an agency, plenty of court rulings of late ordering employee re-hires, etc, etc,  He is clearly confused about the court order.

Mr. Dudek seems exasperated about how to proceed with DOGE being blocked access to fulfill their mandate.  He has no authority to shut SSA down and has subsequently backtracked on his remarks after receiving clarification about the court order.

You can stop the hand wringing over a SSA shutdown or carry on, it is not the Admins policy and would be political suicide.  I suggest ignoring such nonsense.

Thanks for showing the “other side of the story”.