By Megan Sayles
AFRO Staff Writer
msayles@afro.com
Maryland lawmakers, including Democratic Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks, stood outside of the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) headquarters in Woodlawn, Md., on Feb. 10 to call for the protection of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
The rally stemmed from reports that the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Tesla billionaire Elon Musk, has accessed sensitive data systems at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the SSA.
The SSA operates the largest federal benefits program in the U.S., serving some of the country’s most vulnerable populations like retirees, people with disabilities, veterans and survivors of deceased workers. As a result of this, the agency is also a central repository for Americans’ personal financial and medical information.
“The way I see it, this is not a recipe for government efficiency,” said Van Hollen. “This is a recipe for corruption by the DOGE boys.”
DOGE has hit the ground running in its quest to dramatically downsize the federal workforce. In just a few weeks, the department moved to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), began its overhaul of the Department of Education and accessed the payment system of the Treasury Department.
The Treasury Department’s payment system is managed by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which also distributes Social Security checks, tax refunds and federal salaries.
DOGE’s actions have sparked several lawsuits, including one from the American Federation of Teachers. New York Attorney General Letitia James has also spearheaded a coalition of 18 other attorneys general to sue the 47th president’s administration and stop DOGE’s access to Americans’ private data.
Van Hollen pointed to Project 2025, a conservative agenda the 47th president previously disavowed, as the North Star for DOGE and the president’s latest moves.
“They are talking about very deep cuts to Medicaid, which is a program that is essential to working families, people with disabilities, kids and tens of millions of people throughout the country,” said Van Hollen. “They’re talking about cutting Social Security by increasing the retirement age for Americans. They’re talking about moving people from the traditional Medicare program and pushing them toward Medicare Advantage.”
Alsobrooks contended that the 47th presidential administration’s intention is to make civil servants feel demoralized, frightened and silenced, as they plan to terminate many members of the federal workforce.
She recalled the roots of the SSA, which was started by former President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 as the Great Depression shattered families’ economic security. She also deemed Social Security as one of the most important social programs in Americans’ lifetimes.
“This is a program that many work years to contribute to because it’s America’s promise to us. We pay into Social Security, and yet it’s under attack today,” said Alsobrooks. “We recognize as well that the Social Security program is not just a program. We are standing in front of a building that represents thousands of Marylanders who have been coming to work— civil servants for over 60 years now who have been coming to this building to do the essential work of processing Social Security checks for nearly 72 million Americans.”
She emphasized that an attack on the SSA is not a partisan issue.
“These are men and women who come to work every day, and these are not Democratic jobs or Republican jobs,” said Alsobrooks. “These are American jobs. Those who work in this building do so no matter who the president is.”
Rich Couture, president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Council 215, also addressed the crowd at the rally. He explained that the SSA has already been suffering from record attrition. The agency is operating under a 50-year staffing low. In spite of this, he said the SSA has made strides in improving productivity and cutting down on service delivery times.
If the 47th presidential administration does shutter SSA workers, Couture said services will be further delayed. He contended that DOGE should actually stand for the “destroyers of government effectiveness.”
“This is all about destroying the size of the federal civil service and eliminating our ability to serve the American people who have already paid for the service and the access to their benefits,” said Couture. “If you think you have service delivery problems now, if you think you’re waiting a long time on our 800 number, if you think you’re waiting a long time in an office, imagine what that service is going to be like if you have no office to call or to visit or if there are no dedicated, apolitical civil servants there to serve you when you want help. We deserve better.”
A 50-year-old employee of the SSA, who asked to speak under anonymity out of fear of losing her job, expressed her fear and frustration over attacks on the agency.
“We’re already short-staffed to begin with, and now this is happening. We don’t have enough hands to process the claims for people who are actually retiring and those who are disabled. It’s a travesty,” she told the AFRO. “We have more work with less hands, and now they want to mess with what we’ve worked so hard for all of these years. It’s unbelievable.”
The Baltimore native emphasized that the people the SSA serve are oftentimes severely under-resourced.
“We deal with them on a daily basis. They are the faces we see in person and the people we speak with over the phone,” she said. “It’s sad because they have no other resources except Social Security. If we can’t do our job or we don’t have the funding to do our job, it’s going to get bad.”
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