Hakeem Jeffries Leads House Democratic Steering And Policy Committee Hearing On Social Security Cuts

2 days ago

On Tuesday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) led a House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee hearing on cuts to Social Security.

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Transcript

00:00:00It was reported on its front page that Donald Trump and Elon Musk are breaking social security.

00:00:06The story details all of the ways Republicans are making it harder for Americans to get

00:00:11the benefits they have earned, laying off customer service staff, closing field offices,

00:00:16and even disabling the agency's website.

00:00:20These are not accidental changes.

00:00:23Trump and Musk are breaking social security intentionally.

00:00:27Today we will hear more about Trump, Musk, and House Republicans' extreme scheme to take

00:00:32social security away from the American people.

00:00:35And we will explore their motivation, stealing from seniors and people with disabilities

00:00:40to give trillions of dollars in tax breaks for Republican billionaire donors.

00:00:45This Republican scheme is not theoretical.

00:00:49As we speak, Trump and Musk are firing workers, closing offices, and making service cuts that

00:00:55are making it nearly impossible for seniors and Americans with disabilities to get their

00:01:00benefits.

00:01:02Democrats believe in common sense.

00:01:04You spend your life working and paying into social security.

00:01:08You have earned these benefits.

00:01:10Politicians should never be able to take away your hard-earned benefits, but that's exactly

00:01:15what Republicans are trying to do.

00:01:18Democrats are supporting litigation to protect social security, conducting oversight to extreme

00:01:23service cuts, and doing everything we can to oppose extreme Republican budget, which

00:01:30will undermine Americans' benefits.

00:01:33Our wonderful leader, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, is leading that fight, and I yield

00:01:38to him for his opening remarks.

00:01:40Leader?

00:01:41Good afternoon.

00:01:43Thank you, Co-Chair Robin Kelly, for your leadership, along with Congresswoman Debbie

00:01:49Wasserman Schultz and Co-Chair Barragan as well.

00:01:53We appreciate you convening this incredibly important hearing on the protection of social

00:01:59security and the threats that are coming from Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the extreme MAGA

00:02:06Republicans.

00:02:07Let me also acknowledge the leadership of the once and future Chair of the House Ways

00:02:13and Means Committee, Richie Neal, and of course the extraordinary advocacy and leadership

00:02:19of Congressman John Larson for their relentless defense of social security.

00:02:26It's an honor to be here with many distinguished members of leadership, as well as the Ways

00:02:31and Means Committee, and of course I want to thank Administrator O'Malley, Governor

00:02:37O'Malley for your presence here today, for your extraordinary leadership in so many areas,

00:02:43but particularly the important voice that you have had all across the country sounding

00:02:49the alarm about the attacks that are ongoing against the Social Security Administration

00:02:54and this all-important earned benefit.

00:02:58Let me also acknowledge the presence of Ms. Kennard, Ms. Brown, and Mr. Glasgow for your

00:03:05testimony here today.

00:03:08Donald Trump and House Republicans are betraying America by trying to take a chainsaw to social

00:03:17security.

00:03:20Social security is the largest anti-poverty program in America for older Americans and

00:03:28people with disabilities.

00:03:31It's an earned benefit that everyday Americans have paid into throughout their entire working

00:03:38life.

00:03:40It's not an entitlement.

00:03:42It's an earned benefit.

00:03:43You've earned it, worked hard for it, and deserve to make sure that your social security

00:03:51is intact so that older Americans can live a life with dignity and respect.

00:04:01But now the extremists are trying to destroy the Social Security Administration.

00:04:10They have fired thousands of employees, broken the agency's website, closed social security

00:04:19offices, and jeopardized the ability of seniors to get their hard-earned benefits.

00:04:27This is unacceptable, unconscionable, and un-American.

00:04:34And Democrats are going to do everything we can to protect the social security of the

00:04:41American people.

00:04:44Trump and House Republicans are scheming to slash social security, cut Medicaid and Medicare

00:04:51as we know it, undermine veterans' benefits, and take away food from children, all so that

00:04:59they can provide a massive tax cut to their billionaire donors like Elon Musk.

00:05:07It's a toxic scheme that must be stopped.

00:05:13They repeatedly lie about social security, calling it a Ponzi scheme.

00:05:20Social security is not a Ponzi scheme.

00:05:22Project 2025 is a Ponzi scheme.

00:05:28And so we're going to continue as Democrats to show up and stand up and speak up for social

00:05:35security, for this earned benefit, and protect the livelihood of the American people.

00:05:43I yield back.

00:05:46Well, thank you, and thank you.

00:05:54Thank you, and thank you, Hakeem Jeffries.

00:05:59Leadership is about meeting the moment.

00:06:02And Democrats, under the leadership of Hakeem Jeffries, are meeting the moment.

00:06:09Social security is under attack.

00:06:13Let me repeat, it's under attack, something Administrator and Governor O'Malley knows

00:06:20and has articulated across this nation as well, something that Rich Neal, who is chairman

00:06:26of the Ways and Means Committee, and now is ranking member, understands as well.

00:06:33The goal here, by the other side, is to privatize.

00:06:37And they're clever.

00:06:39What they're doing is dismantling social security and Medicare from within.

00:06:44They have no, they have disdain for bureaucracy in general, but there's only one, one bureaucracy

00:06:51that has $2.7 trillion in it that they have their eyes on.

00:06:59That is the hard-earned, earned, as Mr. Jeffries said, benefit that the American people have

00:07:08paid into.

00:07:09It's an earned benefit that they deserve, and Democrats, thanks to the visionary leadership

00:07:16of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, have made sure that this is the number one anti-poverty program

00:07:22for the elderly and the number one anti-poverty program for children.

00:07:27And that's why we're out to make sure that we protect this, as well as making sure we're

00:07:32providing disability as well for the citizens.

00:07:36We will not allow this to be privatized, but we have to aggressively educate the American

00:07:44public.

00:07:45And I think this short film that we're about to show will do that, so let's take a look.

00:07:50House Republicans want to take away social security benefits for 73 million Americans.

00:07:55They believe that seniors and people with disabilities don't deserve a modest benefit

00:07:59of less than $1,900 a month.

00:08:02They don't care that 40% of seniors have no income other than social security.

00:08:07They ignore that we've paid into the system and it's our money they're taking away.

00:08:11They'd rather give the richest real estate moguls a big tax break to buy another home.

00:08:16Mr. Speaker, thanks to the Ways and Means Dems that are here as well.

00:08:43This is a clear fight for all members of the American family.

00:08:48Musk's crusade against Social Security, along with Trump, it's a five-alarm fire.

00:08:55After 90 years, we're still arguing about Social Security?

00:09:02Republicans have put us closer than ever to misbenefits where members of the Cabinet say

00:09:07it's about fraud.

00:09:10It's about a Ponzi scheme.

00:09:12Ponzi schemes are illegal.

00:09:15They're illicit.

00:09:16They're unlawful.

00:09:18Republicans have relaunched a coordinated attack, and they've been peddling this argument

00:09:23for a long time.

00:09:25I remember the plan that they had to privatize Social Security back in 2006.

00:09:31The Social Security program in America was compared to the Social Security plan in Chile.

00:09:38And incidentally, the Chileans moved away from the private plan and back to a public

00:09:43plan because of the guarantee.

00:09:46The life cycle of Republican governing always goes like this.

00:09:50Lament over fiscal responsibility, target essential services, cut taxes, make services

00:09:56hard to use, claim it's broken, justify the cuts, and then come back and give the money

00:10:02to billionaire friends with massive tax cuts.

00:10:07Republicans think that if they weaken Social Security, they can ramp up frustration over

00:10:11customer service, benefit interruptions, and ultimately wreck Social Security.

00:10:17Governor O'Malley is here, one of the most capable public officials I've known.

00:10:21He can confirm the number in a moment that I'm about to use.

00:10:25For all their talk about Social Security, I believe at the moment it has a $2.8 trillion

00:10:30surplus, $2.7 trillion surplus.

00:10:35Our Republican colleagues have refused to denounce Musk's attack on Social Security.

00:10:40Again, he called it a Ponzi scheme.

00:10:43He talks about fraud.

00:10:44There is nobody 300 years old receiving Social Security benefits.

00:10:49That argument was knocked down immediately.

00:10:51It was reckless and it was irresponsible.

00:10:54Yet, yet, there's nobody on the Republican side who will critique what it is that they've

00:10:59said.

00:11:00The Commerce Secretary said seniors wouldn't call and complain if their monthly checks

00:11:06don't come.

00:11:07He never served in Congress, I'll tell you that.

00:11:09That's a call you get immediately.

00:11:13These billionaires are trying to run the country and take away one of the most dependable initiatives

00:11:18in the history of the world, Social Security.

00:11:21I know something about Social Security.

00:11:24We lived on survivor benefits, my sisters and I, with an aunt and a grandmother, and

00:11:28their Social Security.

00:11:31Families come in different shapes and sizes, but that's how we existed, because of Social

00:11:35Security and the genius of Roosevelt's plan.

00:11:39But our coordinated outrage and our relentless pushback for the yes people that are running

00:11:43Social Security now, I think they're starting to realize the consequences of these actions

00:11:49and they've delayed the devastating customer service changes that were supposed to take

00:11:53effect yesterday.

00:11:54Let me be clear, a delay is not a reprieve.

00:11:58Their plan is to make it hard to access it and then complain that it doesn't work.

00:12:03And that's always been part of their strategy.

00:12:05We've seen the playbook before, we've defeated them before, and we've again organized for

00:12:11the purpose of defeating them this time again.

00:12:14We need to keep organized and we need to make sure that we defend one of the most important

00:12:20initiatives in the history of legislative life in America, the genius and guarantee

00:12:25of Social Security.

00:12:28Thank you so much, Ranking Member Neal, for your leadership.

00:12:31And I want to thank Co-Chair Kelly and our colleagues on the Steering and Policy Committee

00:12:36for holding this important conversation.

00:12:39Our witness today is a public servant for more than three decades.

00:12:44Martin O'Malley served on the City Council, then as Mayor of the City of Baltimore, before

00:12:48serving two terms as the Governor of Maryland.

00:12:51Most recently, he served with distinction, as the Leader mentioned, as a Commissioner

00:12:55of the Social Security Administration, where he made sure that every one of the 70 million

00:12:59Americans who received Social Security benefits had a direct line into the federal government.

00:13:05He oversaw more than 50,000 workers at the SSA's headquarters, 10 regional offices, and

00:13:111,200 field offices across this country.

00:13:14He made certain that the Social Security Administration not only continued, but built upon, its legacy

00:13:20of quality customer service.

00:13:24As a promise that America has upheld since Social Security was created by Congress in

00:13:291935 under the leadership of President Roosevelt, this promise went unbroken until Donald Trump

00:13:35and Elon Musk took a chainsaw to that legacy with plans for extreme cuts, office closures,

00:13:42and continued barriers to earn benefits.

00:13:46After 90 straight years of seniors, survivors, and people with disabilities being able to

00:13:51rely upon Social Security, extreme Republican attacks have upended the agency in just two

00:13:56months.

00:13:58And two people are to blame, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and the

00:14:03unelected billionaire Elon Musk, who calls Social Security a Ponzi scheme.

00:14:08Governor O'Malley knows exactly what it takes to protect and strengthen the Social Security

00:14:12Administration.

00:14:13Today, unfortunately, he will tell us exactly how Trump and Musk are breaking it down.

00:14:19Governor O'Malley, you're now recognized.

00:14:24Madam Co-Chair and Leader Jeffries, thank you very, very much for pulling together this

00:14:30hearing and for focusing our attention on this very imminent threat to a program that

00:14:38has never missed a payment in 90 years.

00:14:44For 73 million Americans, half of all seniors who live alone, you know, over 65, Social

00:14:52Security is the only thing that separates them from living in dignity or living and

00:14:57dying in poverty.

00:14:59For 73 million Americans, it's a lifeline, not only retirees, but also people who unfortunately

00:15:05have suffered a disability, can no longer work, and for a lot of kids who receive supplemental

00:15:13security income with severe disabilities.

00:15:16I had the honor, as you said, of leading these men and women, and I watched them rally at

00:15:21one of the most difficult times in the agency's history.

00:15:24And seeing the progress they made, I likened it to, you know, they were sprinting up a

00:15:31downward moving escalator.

00:15:34And what was moving it downward at such an increased velocity was the greater numbers

00:15:40of people every single day that they were serving.

00:15:43Because of, dare I say here, this committee is much younger than me, due to baby boomers

00:15:47of my generation, the ranks of their beneficiary customers, every single day was a new record

00:15:53high, and after 10 years of staffing reductions imposed by House Republicans, their staffing

00:16:00was at a 50-year low.

00:16:04This graph kind of sums it up to the men and women of the committee.

00:16:09You can see, and it was projected for many, many years, Social Security operates on a

00:16:1375-year projection.

00:16:15All of those baby boomers were born post-World War II, and we knew they were coming.

00:16:20But even with seeing the growing numbers of beneficiaries, level funding for this agency

00:16:26over the last 10 years has meant that they have to let the grim reaper of attrition bring

00:16:32them to a balanced budget by the end of the year.

00:16:35Unless anybody look at that yawning gap and think, well, why don't they just make up for

00:16:39it with better IT?

00:16:40Well, that'd be a great idea, except they've had to postpone, push off for years and years

00:16:44IT modernization.

00:16:46It's not that they're dumb.

00:16:48It's not that they're stupid.

00:16:49It's not that they want old technology.

00:16:51It's that we have failed to invest in their ability to modernize their IT.

00:16:56So from my knowledge of this agency, from what I've learned from these hardworking men

00:17:01and women, this chainsaw of the Musk-Trump co-presidency is gutting this agency.

00:17:11It is breaking it from within, and it ultimately will lead to cascading failures, interruptions,

00:17:19and system shutdowns that will eventually, and I think within the next couple of months,

00:17:27lead to benefit interruptions for the first time in 90 years.

00:17:35And the reason for this crisis is not a mystery.

00:17:39House Republicans have remained silent in the face of this looming threat.

00:17:46They're allowing this agency to be broken from within and allowing Donald Trump and

00:17:51Elon Musk to degrade customer service and drive experienced employees out.

00:17:56If you want to find waste at Social Security today, look at the cash payments of our money

00:18:04and beneficiaries' money in earning their benefits.

00:18:07Look at the cash that they are burning by paying experienced, if overworked, men and

00:18:13women to leave the agency.

00:18:17Some of them, they're paying for the entire year not to show up for work again.

00:18:21Don't let the door hit your backside on the way out.

00:18:23And no knowledge transfer, which creates a critical situation, especially in IT, where

00:18:33so many are retirement eligible.

00:18:35In the Office of Benefit Information Systems, 40% of those employees are retirement eligible.

00:18:41And they have been dealing these last two years with a hostile work environment intentionally

00:18:45brought on by the Trump-Musk doge teams and telling people, if you don't take the cash

00:18:53to get out now, you take your chances walking the plank of further rifts and firings if

00:18:59you don't take the cash to get out now.

00:19:02What would you do if it was your family that was at risk from this threat?

00:19:07And it's not just a threat.

00:19:08In their first week with their new appointed acting commissioner, they brought in two of

00:19:14the highest performers of the agency.

00:19:16One was the head of the Office of Customer Service Transformation.

00:19:19The other, the head of the Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity, set them both

00:19:23down individually and said, you're being fired for cause.

00:19:28Tell everybody in your office, you're being fired for cause, too.

00:19:33Put your stuff in a cardboard box.

00:19:35This is your last day.

00:19:37It created a spectacle in the full parking lot at the end of that day with men and women

00:19:43who had given their lives to this mission, crying on each other's shoulders, saying goodbye

00:19:47to colleagues.

00:19:49That's the atmosphere that's been created at this agency.

00:19:53I truly believe that the Musk-Trump co-presidency has already taken 90% of the actions necessary

00:19:59to crater this agency.

00:20:01And this is the chronology that you will see unfolding in the weeks ahead.

00:20:06You've already seen it in the weeks behind.

00:20:09Largest number, greatest exodus in the agency that the agency's ever experienced over such

00:20:14a short period of time.

00:20:16I believe it's hard to get good numbers out of the agency anymore.

00:20:20It's kind of become the hermit kingdom.

00:20:24I believe they're probably at about 6,000, 7,000 people that have already separated.

00:20:30And I believe that they're going to drive out another 3,000 or 4,000.

00:20:35That's in an agency that was already at a 50-year low with customers at an all-time

00:20:39high.

00:20:41As they do that, you are then going to see intermittent interruptions of the applications

00:20:47that process the claims, not the green screen cobalt that has all of our earnings in it

00:20:53and the personal identifying information, but the applications that sit on top of that.

00:20:58You're going to see them go down.

00:21:00In fact, I think today they were down for three hours.

00:21:04They are going to happen more frequently.

00:21:07And then in the weeks ahead, you're going to see them lasting a longer period of time.

00:21:11Instead of just down for three hours, you'll see them getting to three days.

00:21:15Ultimately, the combination of those things will see this agency head into a cascading

00:21:22event that will ultimately interrupt the payment of benefits for some time.

00:21:30I don't know what that period of time will be, but knowing what I know about the agency,

00:21:37that batch goes through in various segments every month for pay.

00:21:44And I truly believe that for the first time in 90 years, those benefits are going to be

00:21:49interrupted for some time.

00:21:51I don't know how long.

00:21:53The goal, of course, in all of this, I've come to believe it's not mere arrogance, could

00:21:58be ideology, but it would appear that what they're trying to do is crater this agency

00:22:04and kneecap its ability to serve the public.

00:22:09They have to do that because 80% of Americans believe that Social Security should be strengthened

00:22:14and made better.

00:22:16But they can't really rob it until they wreck it and sour enough of the public against it.

00:22:24So you see a common thread going through a lot of their changes.

00:22:29No longer can seniors who have a hard time getting to a field office, no longer can they

00:22:34get their business done on the phone.

00:22:36We're policing fraud, so no longer can they do it by the phone.

00:22:40They have to go to a field office.

00:22:43The enumeration beyond entry, which actually was going on during the first Trump administration,

00:22:48the automation when USCIS sends to Social Security people who are immigrating lawfully

00:22:54and says, send them a Social Security card for work purposes.

00:22:58Oh, you can no longer do that.

00:23:00There might be fraud.

00:23:01You know, it's all part of a blue conspiracy to give immigrants the right to vote.

00:23:05So they make them go to a field office.

00:23:07I could go through other ones, but it seems that what they're trying to do, even as they

00:23:11threaten to close offices, is to jam them up and give people the worst possible experience

00:23:17they can have.

00:23:18So then after wrecking it, they can rob it.

00:23:20What they want to do with the $2.7 trillion, I cannot tell you.

00:23:25You all have your theories.

00:23:28But I can see that they're trying to wreck this agency.

00:23:30And the people of the United States who are in this benefit need to stand up right now.

00:23:35I truly believe only an aroused democracy can stop them from doing what they're already

00:23:3990% of the way to doing.

00:23:41And it's my great hope that because of this hearing, because of the laser focus, because

00:23:45Leader Jeffries, if you and your colleagues raising the alarm, that maybe we can even

00:23:52persuade some reasonable Republicans to lend their voice to the cause of securing Social

00:23:58Security for the future.

00:24:03Thank you, Governor O'Malley, for sharing your expertise with us today.

00:24:08And thank you for your leadership and the work that you've done.

00:24:12And to all of the men and women of the Social Security Administration for the work you do

00:24:17on behalf of all of our constituents.

00:24:19I want to thank our leader, the co-chairs for their, for the leadership of doing these

00:24:25hearings.

00:24:26The Republicans refuse to talk about the issues and it's important that we do.

00:24:32Governor O'Malley, Elon Musk continues to falsely claim that there is widespread Social

00:24:38Security fraud and uses his misinformation to justify drastic cuts that make it harder

00:24:46for seniors to access their earned benefits.

00:24:49What are the facts about Social Security fraud?

00:24:52Is Elon Musk actually doing anything to combat fraud in any meaningful way?

00:25:00I have not seen it yet.

00:25:03I've seen a lot of waste and it's being committed, as I said before, giving our cash to people

00:25:09to quit the agency.

00:25:12Let's talk a little bit about the fraud.

00:25:15It is a large agency, 73 million payments, and we had functions to police against fraud.

00:25:21One of them, Donald Trump, decapitated on the second day in office by eliminating the

00:25:25head of the Office of Inspector General.

00:25:28The internal inspections unit, separate from the other, you know, aspects of Social Security,

00:25:34was called OARO, O-A-R-O.

00:25:37It stands for Analytics, Review, and Oversight.

00:25:41And that division's job was to police against improper payments, whether fraud or errors

00:25:46of the agency.

00:25:49That division, in which the current puppet commissioner used to serve, was dismantled

00:25:53by him in his first week on the job.

00:25:56Tore it apart like the flying monkeys tore apart the scarecrow.

00:25:59Sent one piece here, another piece there, so that was eliminated.

00:26:04Prior to the elimination of the OIG and OARO, report after report said that we had a error

00:26:10rate, improper rate, of below 1%.

00:26:14Sometimes it was 98.7%.

00:26:17A lot of that, though, was not fraud.

00:26:20That was errors on our part, leading causes being that people retire at 62 and they continue

00:26:24to work and their earnings estimate was off, or people on SSI working a second job to make

00:26:30ends meet, underpaid, overpaid.

00:26:32So the fraud is actually pretty small, although it's a big agency, so you have to constantly

00:26:38police against it.

00:26:39The big lies that were spewed out once they took away the agency's ability to police against

00:26:45us, the first one was the zombie apocalypse with all the millions of people with checks

00:26:51streaming out of their cadaverous pockets walking the planet Earth.

00:26:55That is not true, not true at all.

00:26:57In audits or studies that have been done, I think what the inspector general found in

00:27:02one year was 800 people that got checks beyond their deceased state, and usually we catch

00:27:09up with that in a couple months.

00:27:11The other big lie that was told the other day on Fox News, where the brave Elon Musk

00:27:15is the only network, apparently, that he's able to go on, he said that 40% of all of

00:27:21the calls coming in to the 1-800 number are fraudsters who steal your direct deposit checks

00:27:31all day long and nobody stops them.

00:27:33The truth is, only one out of 3,100 calls to the 800 number is fraud.

00:27:42We thwart four more for every one that gets through, and they could thwart even a higher

00:27:47number than that if they'd implement the synthetic voice recognition and the automatic

00:27:51robocall recognition that we had teed up for them, but for some reason they haven't done.

00:27:55The third big lie came over the weekend, not coincidentally in Wisconsin, one of those

00:27:59swing states that they pounded with the big lie during the campaign that illegal immigrants

00:28:04steal your social security benefits and are going to bankrupt the system, when the truth

00:28:08is people working here outside of legal status, illegal immigrants so-called, are prohibited

00:28:15by law from receiving any social security benefits, although they pay in $22 billion

00:28:21for the rest of us.

00:28:23And in this big thing where they walked and strutted around a giant American flag doing

00:28:27their best George Patton imitation, though I don't know that either of them ever served,

00:28:33they then had a graph that showed the number of people coming in, number of immigrants

00:28:38coming into America over the last few years, pointed to a spike and said, aha, this is

00:28:44what we've found, all of these people got social security numbers, and their hand-picked

00:28:50audience gasped.

00:28:51They discovered it.

00:28:52And they said this was all part of a blue state plan to give illegal immigrants the

00:28:56right to vote so that we, and he said this, so that we'll never be able to, a blue state

00:29:04in perpetuity from which none of us will ever be able to escape.

00:29:08And they said that, they said in all of these people, all of these millions, it was like

00:29:13three million, who they insinuated strongly were illegal, illegally here, they said they

00:29:18were all given social security numbers, and in the computer system, they were all marked

00:29:25maximum benefits, maximum inclusion.

00:29:29There is no automatic button in any system of social security that is maximum benefit

00:29:36automatic button or maximum inclusion automatic button, but the audience loved it.

00:29:42And in fact, what they were pointing at were people who emigrated here and were in legal

00:29:47status and United States Customs and Immigration Service, ever since Trump's first term, would

00:29:53electronically notify social security, send these people who are here legally and allowed

00:30:01to work a social security card at this address.

00:30:08That was that big lie.

00:30:11So it seems like there's a new one coming out every two weeks, and they're getting better

00:30:14at the high production.

00:30:17And so we really have to be rapid in our response to these big lies, because it's not only in

00:30:22crowding up the field offices, by the way, some of the strides we made in improving customer

00:30:27service, like the ALJ hearings were the best in 30 years, the percentage of people effectuated

00:30:34into retirement, best in 10 years, all of those are skyrocketing and going the opposite

00:30:39direction now.

00:30:40But it's not just degrading the customer service and jamming people into field offices.

00:30:45It's these constant attacks and lies on the agency, mocking it and deriding it.

00:30:49So let's touch on that.

00:30:51The administration, their actions under Elon Musk and the Dogebros have affected the agency's

00:30:59ability to operate.

00:31:01The website has crashed multiple times, staff shortages have reached crisis levels, and

00:31:07dozens of field offices are closing, including one in Las Vegas on Bridger Avenue, the closest

00:31:14option for many of my constituents.

00:31:16Now, each one of us has a story of constituents who are trying to get access to their earned

00:31:22benefit.

00:31:23And I don't blame them because they've earned it.

00:31:26So Governor O'Malley, what do these issues mean for the future viability of the Social

00:31:31Security Administration?

00:31:34These are all self-inflicted wounds.

00:31:36Well, I say self-inflicted, but Elon Musk really doesn't need his Social Security check

00:31:43like people that live on it do.

00:31:45But these wounds are self-inflicted.

00:31:49This agency, when it operated at a high level of customer service, had an overhead of 1.2%.

00:31:56Far better than any private insurance company.

00:31:59So these wounds are self-inflicted.

00:32:04This agency should be able to function for another 90 years because it is a pay-as-you-go

00:32:11system.

00:32:12The Americans who worked last year paid in $1.3 billion, and we paid out to people in

00:32:17beneficiary status $1.4 billion.

00:32:21Where did the $100 trillion, $1.3 trillion was paid in, $1.4 trillion was paid out, and

00:32:29the difference was taken from that $2.7 trillion surplus intentionally built up by your predecessors

00:32:36in the Congress to cover the lifespan of the baby boomers.

00:32:41So the long-term viability of this agency should not be in question.

00:32:47It's only in question now because of the chainsaw that is gutting this agency and destroying

00:32:55its ability to function as designed.

00:32:58Governor, thank you so much for being here today.

00:33:02We're so grateful to you.

00:33:05You're really such a talented guy.

00:33:07We're fortunate that you've served in this position and know so much and done such a

00:33:10good job.

00:33:12I've been trying to raise some concerns I have about people that are working for Elon

00:33:19Musk and the Doge group of these young guys that are computer hackers and gamers, and

00:33:27they have access to people's personal information.

00:33:31So most times in government, you know, you see people go through Senate hearings or people

00:33:35go through background checks or security clearances, and we don't really know what these guys have

00:33:40gone through as far as their background checks.

00:33:42We don't know what they're doing.

00:33:43We don't know what their computer strokes they're doing.

00:33:44We don't know what they're leaving behind.

00:33:46I'm going to remember what you said here today.

00:33:48They want to wreck it before they rob it.

00:33:49I mean, that's really a big concern we all have, but I'm really concerned about the access

00:33:54they have to people's personal information, confidential information.

00:34:00Could you tell us, you know, there have been lawsuits filed about this.

00:34:04Many people think it's illegal.

00:34:06Can you tell us about people's personal information and about the security and the importance

00:34:11of having that information kept confidential?

00:34:13Yes, sir.

00:34:14I'll do my best.

00:34:16One of the things I learned about the culture of that agency is that those men and women

00:34:22would fall on their sword to protect the personal identifying information of beneficiaries and

00:34:30citizens in that database.

00:34:32It is something drilled into them from their first days of training at the agency.

00:34:38There are various levels of access to information that's granted depending on your function

00:34:46in the agency.

00:34:47If you don't have a business purpose, say processing a disability claim or something

00:34:51else, you know, there's certain parameters about what you're allowed to go rummage through.

00:34:57According to an affidavit filed, an affidavit that was filed related to the forced resignation,

00:35:07I guess we'll say, of their first acting commissioner, career civil servant, Michelle King, her deputy,

00:35:14Tiffany Flick, said that the reason things came to a head with the DOJ team was that

00:35:19the person that was put there, either by the current social security commissioner or

00:35:27by DOJ and Elon Musk, or perhaps it was a joint appointment, that he demanded that Michelle

00:35:33King give to the DOJ team total, unfettered, broad access to all of our personal identifying

00:35:42information, and they even asked for the source codes, and they wanted it urgently.

00:35:48How urgently?

00:35:49Like yesterday, urgently.

00:35:52And when Michelle King wouldn't give it to them, they said, then you're going to be replaced.

00:35:56She said, according to the affidavit, that she was resigning rather than violate, you

00:36:02know, the privacy and the security.

00:36:06What concerns me, and one of the other things she said in the affidavit, this was her deputy,

00:36:11Tiffany Flick, she said she was concerned that the information would be exposed and

00:36:18would not be safeguarded, and she was concerned that it might fall into the hands of bad actors,

00:36:27a term we typically reserve for foreign adversaries.

00:36:33So the people that are in that database would be people with new identities.

00:36:36Why do you need a new identity?

00:36:38Why do you need a new social security number?

00:36:40Well, maybe you cooperated with the FBI to bring down the mob.

00:36:45Maybe you cooperated with American forces in Iraq and helped bring down ISIS, and you

00:36:51need a new identity.

00:36:52People that cooperated in Afghanistan, people who perhaps defected from Russia or from Communist

00:37:01China and had been found to have been aiding our government.

00:37:08That's what concerns me.

00:37:09It's really scary.

00:37:10I mean, if you think about it, it's not only access to people's personal information, their

00:37:13bank accounts, everyday Americans, but it's some of these very serious cases that you're

00:37:18talking about.

00:37:19One of the charts that you put up earlier was about the number of employees that work

00:37:23at the Social Security Administration, and there's been a concern for a long time that

00:37:28there's been inadequate staffing at the agency, and now we're going to see these layoffs,

00:37:35and as you pointed out, the employees are less than, I think it's less than half of

00:37:41a tenth of a percent, the number that they're firing, that 7,000 people, we hear that number

00:37:46over and over again, is less than a half of a tenth of a percent of the overall budget.

00:37:49Right.

00:37:50Most of the budget is the benefits that you distribute.

00:37:52And we already hear about wait times and things like that, and I have people calling my office

00:37:57like crazy, not just people who are afraid of what's going to happen, but my number of

00:38:02casework cases of people who are actually having a problem because they can't get through

00:38:07or they can't get a form filled out or they can't get their benefits have tripled over

00:38:11the past couple of weeks.

00:38:12Can you tell us about how these reduced workforce will affect the agency?

00:38:17I'm seeing a lot of heads nodding of other members who are seeing the same thing of people

00:38:22calling.

00:38:23Yeah, it's a shame.

00:38:25Last year we were able to bring down a lot of those wait times.

00:38:27Now they're all skyrocketing.

00:38:28Let me show you, can I show you just one example?

00:38:31Can you put up that first map?

00:38:34These are the ALJ hearings by ALJ districts.

00:38:38Our goal was to get it down to 270, hadn't been 270 days, time to decision, in 25 years.

00:38:48But we worked at it.

00:38:49Every two weeks we worked at it.

00:38:51And those are kind of the catchment area of the offices.

00:38:54By the end of the year, next slide, that's what they were able to get it down to.

00:39:01So this is an agency that operates on less than 1%, even though it's the largest adjudicatory

00:39:06body in the free world.

00:39:08They're running up a downward moving escalator because of all of the new beneficiaries.

00:39:13And with the additional reductions, I think they're going to get to 10,000 people leaving

00:39:18the agency.

00:39:19Because the other piece is as the workloads go up, the demoralization becomes deeper and

00:39:25people burn out and leave, even though some of them refuse to take the cash out of principle

00:39:30and believe in the mission.

00:39:33So you're talking about taking roughly 53,000 people down to 46,000, 44,000.

00:39:41It's going to mean that if you go to a field office, you're going to see a heck of a lot

00:39:45more empty closed windows than you see people at the windows.

00:39:50It means that if you worked all your life and you finally hit 67 and want to apply for

00:39:57benefits, it's no longer going to take you the two weeks that it did, that they got it

00:40:02down to last year.

00:40:04It's going to take you many more weeks than that.

00:40:08And if you, God forbid, are suffering from a disability, already more people die waiting

00:40:14for an initial disability determination than ever before in the history of the program

00:40:18since Dwight Eisenhower signed it into law.

00:40:22So there's going to be a lot more people dying waiting for their initial disability determinations

00:40:28because those state offices funded by Social Security are also going to be seeing high

00:40:33levels of attrition and cuts.

00:40:36Can't recall now whether they were paid cash to leave.

00:40:39My guess is they weren't.

00:40:41That's probably just the people, just the people that make the systems go and process

00:40:46the claims.

00:40:47All of those wait times are already skyrocketing and you're going to see it get worse.

00:40:50The other thing that's going to get worse is improper payments because when you have

00:40:54huge workloads and fewer people and fewer time, less time to check up on them.

00:41:01You're also going to see the time it takes to catch an improper overpayment is going

00:41:06to take a lot longer.

00:41:07So when Mrs. Kaczynski gets the scary letter saying you need to repay this, it's going

00:41:13to be a much higher dollar amount.

00:41:15And their acting commissioner did away with a new policy that we had put in place last

00:41:20year.

00:41:21You're urging to no longer intercept 100 percent of a beneficiary's check when they don't wait

00:41:27for two hours on the phone to work out a payment plan.

00:41:30They went back to intercepting 100 percent of it.

00:41:34And so you're going to find a lot more people with those scary letters also going to field

00:41:38offices because they'll be freaked sitting on hold for three hours.

00:41:41That is going to take them months and months more before their check is turned back on.

00:41:45Again, it's all about destroying customer service.

00:41:49They need to turn the public against the agency by destroying customer service.

00:41:54And then having wrecked it, they'll have more leeway to rob it or to liquidate it.

00:41:59All right, Governor, thank you very much.

00:42:04Thank you so much, Governor O'Malley.

00:42:05And, you know, before I ask you some questions, I just want to.

00:42:09Gwen.

00:42:10Yes, ma'am.

00:42:11Can I just stop you for just for the sake of time, just our questioners and our guests.

00:42:17I know we started a little bit late, but we just want to try to catch up a little bit

00:42:21because we know members have other things and I guess they have other places to be to.

00:42:26So I have a town just being considerate.

00:42:29OK, sorry.

00:42:32I just want to thank you because you did bring those wait times down and I will I will hasten

00:42:38to ask my questions.

00:42:40You talked about how Musk is closing field offices and laying off workers who answer

00:42:46the phone and even they say they have delayed requiring identity verification by phone and

00:42:59soon they're going to force you to come to the field office.

00:43:02And this doesn't make any sense to me and it seems like a recipe for disaster.

00:43:07So can you explain how this double whammy will what you know what chaos it will cause

00:43:13and how the shrunken agency will cope?

00:43:16How can they cope with with this?

00:43:18Yeah, it's exactly the opposite of where this agency this agency was given a vision by acting

00:43:23commissioner Carolyn Colvin, you know, many in 2011.

00:43:28And the goal was to make it easier for people to do business with the agency without having

00:43:32to come in to a field office.

00:43:35So we developed a number of things so that people could go online so we could do identity

00:43:38verification online so that people could get their business done over the phone.

00:43:43What's happened now over the last 60 days is exactly the opposite of that.

00:43:47They are pouring kerosene on attrition and they are reducing the things they are reducing

00:43:52services provided online or over the phone so they can drive more people to crowded field

00:43:57offices which they're also planning to reduce.

00:44:00Governor, you mentioned that Elon Musk has eliminated multiple programs within the agency

00:44:07including the Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity, Office of Transformation and

00:44:12Retirement and Disability Research Consortium.

00:44:17How will this directly affect individuals who receive Social Security benefits?

00:44:24Let me talk about, you mentioned the research consortium that this agency is supposed to

00:44:29provide equal services and equal benefits, equal access all across the country regardless

00:44:36of race, class, place.

00:44:39Part of what that research consortium does is they are paid to research issues like that

00:44:44but also things like sickle cell.

00:44:47Did we get sickle cell right or did we get it wrong?

00:44:50Is there more scientific and a better read to take on that so we're not denying kids

00:44:54with sickle cell benefits that they deserve?

00:44:56So that's the research consortium.

00:44:59In terms of the Office of Civil Rights, they've created a hostile work environment and that's

00:45:05the office that you would go to complain about a hostile work environment.

00:45:10But let me focus on the Office of Transformation.

00:45:14Perhaps they saw the word trans in it and that's why they decided to fire it.

00:45:20But we should have called it the office, they should have called it, predated my time there.

00:45:24It's called the Office of Customer Service Transformation.

00:45:27One of the most talented people in the agency, Eric Powers, he had a group of about 70 men

00:45:32and women, the best and the brightest from the agency.

00:45:35And their purpose was to make it easier rather than harder for people to do business.

00:45:40To be able to provide more services online, not fewer.

00:45:43To be able to have an intuitive website that people could make it through and not one that's

00:45:48clunky and looks like it was put together on the fly 20 years ago.

00:45:52So the elimination of that office, shortly after they eliminated the office, they called

00:45:56them and they fired them for cause.

00:45:59Part of that was to send a message that they can fire anybody illegally that they want.

00:46:03There was no cause.

00:46:05There was no cause, he was one of the best people in the agency.

00:46:08They wanted to send that chilling effect.

00:46:10And shortly thereafter, that weekend, they started experiencing problems with the website

00:46:14going down.

00:46:15And then they realized the people in that office were the ones responsible for keeping

00:46:18the website up.

00:46:20So these are the cascading, the interruptions, the customer service delays that are going

00:46:24to affect people and ultimately result in an interruption of benefits, which for some

00:46:29could be personally catastrophic if they're living on the edge.

00:46:33Governor O'Malley, first, thank you for being here and sharing your perspectives with us.

00:46:44And thank you for your leadership.

00:46:46Your leadership shows us how Social Security can be improved and strengthened.

00:46:51And so we appreciate that.

00:46:52But I also want to take a moment to thank all the good people who worked with you at

00:46:55Social Security during your time there.

00:46:57People who, as you have described, took their jobs very seriously and understood that the

00:47:04work they were doing on behalf of the American people was truly a sacred trust.

00:47:07Sadly, Donald Trump and Elon Musk are not trying to build up the Social Security administration.

00:47:13They're actually trying to break it, as you noted.

00:47:16That has profoundly serious consequences for all Americans.

00:47:18After all, Social Security benefits Americans at every stage of life.

00:47:24More than five million kids and widows who receive survivor's benefits rely on Social

00:47:28Security.

00:47:29More than eight million people with disabilities rely on Social Security.

00:47:33And well over half of our nation's seniors rely on Social Security as their main source

00:47:37of income.

00:47:38House Democrats are listening to the American people, and they're telling us that they count

00:47:42on Social Security.

00:47:43So what I'd like to do is hear from some of those people right now, if we can cue a video.

00:47:48I have been paying into Social Security since I was 16 years old.

00:47:51I worked for over 50 years in the manufacturing industry.

00:47:55I started working at the age of 15.

00:47:5738 years for two Fortune 50 companies.

00:48:00Years in the service, Navy.

00:48:02The 911 emergency police dispatcher.

00:48:05A school librarian.

00:48:07We worked very hard our whole life.

00:48:09Social Security presently represents about a third of my income, about half of my disposable

00:48:14income.

00:48:15We live almost entirely on Social Security benefits.

00:48:18We basically have to live off of that.

00:48:21Without Social Security, millions of seniors would be poverty stricken.

00:48:27It helps pay the bills.

00:48:28The mortgage, our light and gas bill, water bill, and food.

00:48:33Me and my husband would be devastated to lose it.

00:48:37Without Social Security benefits, my disabled daughter will have no access to housing or

00:48:41resources to meet her basic needs.

00:48:44I was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

00:48:46Loss of benefits will have a direct and daily effect on me and my family as we navigate

00:48:51the medical needs we will be facing.

00:48:53To say we are more than concerned, I'd say we are a bit terrified.

00:48:57It's been very unsettling to try and figure this out.

00:48:59I'm concerned about what's happening with Doge and the massive cuts to Social Security.

00:49:05The thought of delaying payments or making heirs is stealing from the people.

00:49:10We paid in for it.

00:49:12This is our funds and our money and we deserve it.

00:49:16Please don't let them take our monies.

00:49:19I paid into this since I was 16 and now 73.

00:49:23More than 30 years I've worked for that.

00:49:26It means the world to me.

00:49:28For young people with disabilities like my sons.

00:49:30For millions of seniors who've worked our whole lives and paid into this.

00:49:35Don't touch Social Security.

00:49:42Democrats are fighting for the American people.

00:49:49We're fighting for the people whose stories you've just heard and for those you hear from

00:49:53today who are just here to fight back also.

00:49:57Social Security is a promise.

00:49:59A promise to millions of Americans.

00:50:02To children who lose a parent.

00:50:04To workers who lose a spouse.

00:50:07To people with disabilities.

00:50:09And to seniors who want to retire with dignity.

00:50:13But Elon Musk and Donald Trump are breaking that promise by firing customer service workers,

00:50:21closing field offices, and cutting critical services that are breaking the agency.

00:50:28And that hurts real people.

00:50:31People like Sue Cunard.

00:50:34Sue is a retired public health nurse who has traveled from Wisconsin to share her story

00:50:41with us today.

00:50:42Sue, thank you so much for being here.

00:50:46You are now recognized.

00:50:53Good afternoon.

00:50:54My name is Sue Cunard.

00:50:56I am a proud retiree member of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal

00:51:02Employees, AFSCME, and a La Crosse, Wisconsin resident.

00:51:09I am here today to make it clear that the earned benefits of Social Security must be

00:51:15preserved and protected from the radical attacks and misinformation we are seeing from the

00:51:23administration.

00:51:26Social Security has been a life-changing program for me and my family for much of my life.

00:51:36When I was three years old, my father passed away.

00:51:40For the next 15 years, Social Security survivor benefits allowed my family to survive and

00:51:48allowed me to stay in school and pursue a career as public health nurse.

00:51:54We were fortunate that my mother worked at home as a seamstress, but we would never have

00:52:01been able to stay in our home and make ends meet through her income alone.

00:52:09Without the Social Security income we received from when I was in grade school through when

00:52:16I was in high school.

00:52:19During my years as a public health nurse, I saw firsthand how Social Security supported

00:52:25patients and their families in the most stressful times of their lives.

00:52:31I vividly recall doing home care work for an older woman who lived in a rural home and

00:52:38depended on Social Security and Medicare to stay in her home and not have to go into a

00:52:44nursing home.

00:52:46She had an above-the-knee amputation and learned to walk on crutches in her 70s because it

00:52:53was important to her to be able to live in her home independently.

00:53:00Without Social Security, I would not have been able to support her living at home with

00:53:05dignity and keep her out of a nursing home.

00:53:11During the unexpected passing of my husband, again, Social Security survivor benefits allowed

00:53:18me to make ends meet, stay in my home, and purchase groceries.

00:53:25The survivor benefits were essential for making the day-to-day payments we needed, such as

00:53:31paying the mortgage and making repairs around the house, but importantly allowed me to continue

00:53:38affording health insurance coverage.

00:53:43Without my survivor benefits and the passage of the Affordable Care Act, I would have struggled

00:53:50to continue to serve my patients and community.

00:53:54Today, in retirement, Social Security retirement benefits allow me to age with dignity.

00:54:03I earn those benefits as a result of my years' employment serving my community as a public

00:54:09health nurse.

00:54:11As my own life shows, Social Security is one of America's most successful programs and

00:54:17widely supported that promises Americans support in retiring with dignity.

00:54:25Despite the value, importance, and efficiency of Social Security to Americans, Elon Musk's

00:54:33Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has spread misinformation about Social Security

00:54:41and put the program at risk for millions of Americans who depend on receiving their earned

00:54:48benefits each month.

00:54:51In the past weeks, Elon Musk and the Trump administration have created chaos and confusion

00:54:59for people like me, who count on Social Security, even going so far as to threaten to shut down

00:55:07the Social Security administration altogether.

00:55:12The administration has made irresponsible staff reductions, threatened to close field

00:55:18offices and reduce telephone services, and brought back cruel overpayment policies that

00:55:25threaten the futures of millions of retirees, seniors, and people with disabilities.

00:55:33The futures of people like me.

00:55:37We must protect the Social Security programs that were promised to be there for workers

00:55:42when they retire.

00:55:45The Elon Musk, DOGE team, and the Trump administration have produced zero evidence of fraud while

00:55:53undermining a program 69 million Americans rely on.

00:55:59It is essential that we defeat these dangerous plans and reinforce Social Security for future

00:56:05generations.

00:56:07I want to thank the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee for hosting this important

00:56:14conversation and for your work to support Social Security beneficiaries and their families.

00:56:21Thank you, Sue.

00:56:25Our next witness is Judith Brown from Charlotte, North Carolina.

00:56:30For 20 years, Judith worked hard, played by the rules, and paid her taxes.

00:56:35She contributed to Social Security with the expectation that it would be there for her.

00:56:40After 20 years of hard work, her health took a turn.

00:56:44She had to leave the workforce.

00:56:46Because of Social Security, Judith was able to get modest benefits to help make ends meet.

00:56:51Her story is one of many.

00:56:53Some 7 million Americans receive disability benefits after working hard for years before

00:56:59an accident, a medical event, or some other catastrophe.

00:57:04Social Security is a vital lifeline for people with disabilities.

00:57:08And the Trump-Musk cuts to Social Security are falling disproportionately on people with

00:57:13disabilities who may need extra support with their benefits.

00:57:17One of the proposed cuts is to shut down the Saginaw, Michigan, field office in the heart

00:57:22of my district.

00:57:24This would create barriers for my constituents, as the in-person assistance is especially

00:57:29helpful for residents who are elderly or disabled, and driving to the next closest office is

00:57:35simply not an option.

00:57:37The stories of Americans with disabilities must be heard.

00:57:41Judith, thank you for being with us today.

00:57:44You are recognized.

00:57:47Hello, my name is Judith Brown, and I live in Charlotte, North Carolina.

00:57:53I was 17 when I started working, and I worked for 20 years as an administrator until I had

00:58:00to leave the workforce at age 37 due to disability.

00:58:06It took two years to get Social Security disability.

00:58:10Those years were incredibly difficult.

00:58:13My Social Security check is very modest, and I just looked at it, and only $1,513 a month.

00:58:22But it is a lifeline that has kept me and my family out of homeless shelters for 20

00:58:30years.

00:58:31No one thinks that they are going to be the ones who will need this lifeline until they

00:58:37have an accident or a medical event.

00:58:42I know many people who are working, and then they became disabled.

00:58:48All of a sudden, they were homeless, waiting to get approved for benefits.

00:58:55Without Social Security and the Medicare that comes with it, I wouldn't be able to see my

00:59:01specialists, get the eye care that I need, or meet any of my other needs.

00:59:08I'm also the mother of two sons who are on the autism spectrum.

00:59:13They were young, 4 and 7 1⁄2, when I had to leave the workforce due to my disabilities.

00:59:21Without Social Security, I could not have been able to take care of them, get them the

00:59:26care they needed to become independent young men.

00:59:31My oldest son receives $963 a month on SSI.

00:59:38My youngest used to receive SSI as well, but came off of it when he was 19.

00:59:45He now works as an artist and in retail.

00:59:48He lives with two roommates, and it isn't always easy, but he is proud to support himself.

00:59:55Most people that I know that are on SSI or Social Security disability, including myself,

01:00:00would like to work, but it is very difficult to find jobs that can accommodate our disabilities.

01:00:07It is also scary to risk losing eligibility for our benefits and the health care that

01:00:13comes with it.

01:00:15I did once get a good remote job in 2010, but after 45 days, we were all laid off.

01:00:23It took a long time to get my Social Security back.

01:00:27Now I hear that Elon Musk and Donald Trump want to close Social Security field offices,

01:00:33lay off thousands of workers, and limit what people are allowed to do over the phone.

01:00:40As a person with mobility and vision impairments, this is outrageous.

01:00:45I need to be able to access my Social Security in the way that works for me.

01:00:52People with vision and mobility issues just can't drive hundreds of miles to spend hours

01:00:58waiting in line in an overcrowded field office.

01:01:03The chaos that Musk and Trump are causing is incredibly stressful and confusing for

01:01:10people around the country who rely on Social Security.

01:01:15The Musk-Trump plan for Social Security is slash and crash.

01:01:20It would destroy the services that families like mine rely on.

01:01:25Our entire existence is on the line.

01:01:28Please fight to protect Social Security for seniors like myself and for young people with

01:01:34disabilities like my sons.

01:01:39Thank you, Judith.

01:01:41As Sue and Judith have shared, Social Security benefits are vital help to people from all

01:01:48walks of life to make ends meet.

01:01:51And behind the 70 million Americans who count on Social Security are the frontline workers

01:01:56who process checks, resolve issues, and ensure the benefits are delivered in full and on time.

01:02:04Workers like Rennie Glasgow, who works at the Social Security Administration in Schenectady,

01:02:10New York.

01:02:12Rennie has seen firsthand how Elon Musk's doge cuts have harmed Social Security services.

01:02:20Cuts that have broken the website and made reaching someone on the phone nearly impossible.

01:02:26Cuts that are making it harder for seniors and people with disabilities to get the benefits

01:02:31they have earned.

01:02:33Rennie, thank you for your service and for being here today.

01:02:36You are recognized.

01:02:39Good afternoon, distinguished members of the committee.

01:02:43My name is Rennie Glasgow.

01:02:45I've devoted 15 years of my career to helping people across, to helping people access the

01:02:52benefits they have earned through Social Security Administration at the Schenectady Social Security

01:02:57Office in New York.

01:02:59I began my career as a claims specialist and have advanced to become a claims technical

01:03:04expert handling the most complex cases every day.

01:03:09And each day, I assist members of my community, seniors, disabled individuals, and survivors

01:03:20who depend on these benefits for their livelihood.

01:03:24I'm proud of my work, ensuring people achieve the benefits, receive the benefits to which

01:03:31they are entitled.

01:03:34I'm a proud federal employee and a proud member of this AFGE.

01:03:40Today, I appear before you as an AFGE member because Social Security is being deliberately

01:03:48sabotaged.

01:03:51Our Schenectady office has recently lost seven employees through the Doge legal firing.

01:04:02This represents a devastating sabotage of institutional knowledge and experience.

01:04:07It takes a minimum of two years for an individual and employee to fully be trained in our programs

01:04:15and to essentially get out there and assist individuals with maneuvering and understanding

01:04:19their benefits.

01:04:22For the public, the consequences of this sabotage are severe.

01:04:27Think of a grandmother.

01:04:30Saratoga Springs, she's about 45 minutes away.

01:04:33She now faced waiting times on the phone of over three hours to get an answer or more.

01:04:42And then when she cannot get past the identifying questions on the phone, she has to trek down

01:04:49to the office where she may have to spend the entire day just to get a simple question

01:04:55answered or simple direct deposit changed.

01:05:00Service delivery has become extremely challenging.

01:05:05Americans will struggle to access their earned benefits.

01:05:09This is another form of sabotage against vulnerable citizens.

01:05:13Social Security has been at an all-time low in staffing.

01:05:19And while the public suffers from inadequate service, seven of my dedicated colleagues

01:05:25will now worry about how they will provide for their families.

01:05:30Recent changes to our operational procedures have created even more obstacles for the public

01:05:35to access benefits.

01:05:37For example, the implementation of a two-step identification process, which means individuals

01:05:43who experience issues logging on to their online account will have to now travel to

01:05:48an office to verify identity in person.

01:05:51This single policy alone will result in 75,000 to 80,000 more in-person visits to our already

01:06:00overwhelmed Social Security offices in a week.

01:06:05Additionally, modifications to claims and Social Security card enumeration process,

01:06:11which was mentioned earlier by Governor O'Malley, will force even more people to visit our field

01:06:17offices in person.

01:06:19While more services will require going into an office, these offices are being closed

01:06:26in communities across the country.

01:06:29In New York, offices in White Plains and Poughkeepsie are targeted for closure, which will force

01:06:36seniors and disabled individuals to travel long distances to get to offices, offices

01:06:42that are not prepared to meet this extra demand because they're already short-staffed.

01:06:47A critical policy change that just went into effect.

01:06:52The Social Security Administration will now take 100% of someone's retirement or disability

01:06:58benefits for an overpayment.

01:07:02My dear friend here, if she goes to work, gets a job, and she earns over the SGA limit,

01:07:08she could be overpaid.

01:07:10And she would lose her benefit for a month, or two, or three, because of this new measure

01:07:19that's been put in place.

01:07:23Prior to that, we had a wonderful system that worked well.

01:07:28You call in, and you set up an agreement, and you pay 10% of your check.

01:07:34You get a check, you are servicing the overpayment.

01:07:36No, that's too easy.

01:07:39This policy shift will also severely increase workload at field offices.

01:07:45This change will trigger a flood of phone calls to our offices.

01:07:51This change will also mean that the individuals, they lose their one-month check, then they

01:07:56will come into the office, they will file a request for a waiver that has to go through

01:08:00another 120-day process, they have to file a request for reconsideration, and then they

01:08:05have to file a hearing almost a year before they get a result on that measure.

01:08:14As though we do not have enough to deal with daily, we are met with emails labeled the

01:08:23fork in the road, or five bullet points of what you did last week.

01:08:33Our activities are tracked as soon as you log on with your PIN.

01:08:40Every keystroke is tracked.

01:08:43Our work is being reviewed weekly, daily, monthly.

01:08:51We do not have claims go out or get into production without them being reviewed by either someone

01:08:59like me, a technical expert, or a supervisor, someone who understands the processing and

01:09:04have been doing it for years.

01:09:08These obstacles will prevent people, your constituents, who have worked hard and paid

01:09:14into the system from getting their social security benefits and getting it timely.

01:09:21Americans deserve better than to have their earned benefits placed out of the reach due

01:09:26to deliberate sabotage of the system.

01:09:29Americans deserve to enjoy a benefit that was established by this house for the people

01:09:39that have worked very hard and paid into this system.

01:09:45I want to thank you for the opportunity for letting me speak today.

01:09:48I welcome any questions.

01:09:51Thank you, Mr. Glasgow.

01:09:54Over here.

01:09:57I really am moved by your work and your testimony, and I do want to direct my first question

01:10:03to you.

01:10:04Elon Musk, who is directing cuts to social security, recently called social security

01:10:11the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.

01:10:15You work directly with people receiving social security every day.

01:10:19Do those beneficiaries think social security is a Ponzi scheme?

01:10:24Not a single individual that receives social security benefits subscribes to those terms.

01:10:29As a matter of fact, I have been holding rallies in front of our social security offices in

01:10:34upstate New York.

01:10:35I had the privilege of having our Congressman Tonko join me in one of our rallies a few

01:10:42weeks ago.

01:10:43Thank you, Congressman.

01:10:46And what we continue to highlight is social security is not a Ponzi scheme.

01:10:52It appears as though there are individuals that would like to make this into a Ponzi

01:10:57scheme so they can benefit in a sinister way.

01:11:03Thank you for that.

01:11:05Ms. Brown, thank you for sharing your story with us.

01:11:09You mentioned your concerns about field offices closing and phone service being limited.

01:11:16Can you tell us more about your concerns with being unable to access help with your

01:11:21social security benefits?

01:11:23Yes.

01:11:25So for 20 years, if I needed any assistance, I could call that phone number.

01:11:32And there would be someone on the other end that could help me.

01:11:34I could verify everything.

01:11:36There was a series of questions to verify my identity.

01:11:40And then they would be able to help me with my case.

01:11:44I would only have to go to a field office if there were other changes I was making.

01:11:48And the nearest field office to me is at least 30 minutes away.

01:11:52I do not know which offices are slated, but it will then require me to have someone drive

01:11:59me to those further offices.

01:12:03I would not be able to do it.

01:12:04I wouldn't even be able to afford a lift to take me 30-plus hours away.

01:12:10Thank you, Judah.

01:12:15As we've discussed, social security isn't just for seniors and people with disabilities.

01:12:21Survivors benefits are essential lifelines for people who lose a parent or a spouse.

01:12:26In my district, California's 29th district, there are nearly 96,000 social security recipients.

01:12:33Sue, can you share how your life would have been different had you and your family not

01:12:38been able to get social security benefits after you experienced tremendous loss?

01:12:45I can.

01:12:47As I said, my father died when I was three years old.

01:12:53Without the social security benefits that my mother and I got, we would not have been

01:12:58able to stay in our rented apartment.

01:13:03We would not have been able to afford food.

01:13:08And truthfully, I would not be who I am and where I am now.

01:13:15Having those benefits allowed me to concentrate on my schoolwork through high school.

01:13:23And doing that, get the grades that I needed to go into college and get scholarships and

01:13:31grants to take me through college so that I could earn my bachelor's degree in nursing

01:13:39and go on to be a person in the career that I had said I wanted to be a nurse before my

01:13:50dad died.

01:13:52I would not have ever been able to be a public health nurse, which was almost a dream come

01:14:00true.

01:14:01Again, when my husband died, I got benefits which allowed me to stay in my home, allowed

01:14:11me to pay the mortgage and utilities, and to put food on the table.

01:14:16Without them, I would not have been able to do what I am now.

01:14:22Thank you for sharing.

01:14:24Rennie, people like Sue rely on these benefits.

01:14:27Is it possible that the cuts Elon Musk is pushing are going to force Social Security

01:14:32field offices like yours to literally turn away people who need help getting the benefits

01:14:39that they have earned?

01:14:41Eventually, we may have to.

01:14:45If you think about it, yesterday and today, we have had record numbers of people visit

01:14:52our office.

01:14:53I've communicated with my colleagues earlier.

01:14:56In addition to that, for about two to three hours, the system went down.

01:15:04We have individuals waiting from 9 o'clock in the morning and at 10 or 11 o'clock, they

01:15:08are told our system is done, we can't help you today.

01:15:10It is already happening.

01:15:13We don't know why they are there.

01:15:17It is a real bad system that is being set up.

01:15:21All these different mechanisms, like Governor O'Malley stated, is a mechanism to ensure

01:15:26that this system crashes and burns.

01:15:37I want to thank our witnesses for being here today.

01:15:41Behind all the numbers are real people.

01:15:44People like you all, who have really sacrificed either yourself when you work there or you

01:15:50receive the benefits.

01:15:52I know it is hard.

01:15:53I know it is particularly hard given the price of gas and food and everything that is rising.

01:16:00For so many people that I represent in Alabama's 7th District, Social Security is their only

01:16:05form of retirement.

01:16:09In this great country of ours, no one should go without having dignity in their elderly

01:16:16years, especially since it is not an entitlement.

01:16:19It is an earned benefit.

01:16:21Sue, after working as a public health nurse and paying into the Social Security, you have

01:16:27rightfully earned your retirement.

01:16:30What are your concerns about DOJ at Social Security Administration and their impact to

01:16:36your financial security?

01:16:42You are hearing that Elon Musk wants access to our data, to our personal data.

01:16:53We all know that our Social Security numbers are used as a security question for a lot

01:17:02of things.

01:17:03These are unelected, unconfirmed, unaccountable people.

01:17:13People who have been put into the system.

01:17:18One of my sons has worked in IT for a number of years.

01:17:24My grandson is currently going to school for cybersecurity.

01:17:31I have been drilled in the security issues that there are.

01:17:39But even more of a concern is, fine, they get access to our data, then what?

01:17:47What are they using it for?

01:17:49What are they using it for?

01:17:50Not only what are they using it for, but what are they going to go after next?

01:17:55Where are they going to go?

01:17:57What else are they going to take away from us?

01:18:01I want to thank you again for being a part of this great hearing.

01:18:06Judith, I'm going to save the last question for you.

01:18:11Donald Trump's Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, recently claimed that only fraudsters

01:18:18complain about missing a Social Security check.

01:18:22How would you happen, how would you and your family survive if you missed a check?

01:18:30And what would you say to him if he were sitting right here?

01:18:32Don't ask me that.

01:18:34First of all, we would not survive.

01:18:39At $963 on SSI, a missed check is missed rent, missed utilities.

01:18:47You are then going to be in this cascading, trying to make up.

01:18:53Rent goes to court, you've got those court fees.

01:18:57If you even made it with family and friends to help you,

01:19:01you would not survive after that.

01:19:04If he were here in front of me, we would end up with a long conversation.

01:19:10I did not expect to need my benefits at 37.

01:19:19It was devastating.

01:19:21But I knew there was something in this country that would help me be able to continue to

01:19:27raise children who then themselves needed support.

01:19:32We would have that conversation.

01:19:33I am not a fraudster at all.

01:19:36And neither are the people that I know and serve in Charlotte, North Carolina.

01:19:41Thank you so much.

01:19:42The 160,000 folks back home in my district that rely on Social Security checks are like

01:19:48you.

01:19:49They're earnest Americans who, if they could work, would have worked.

01:19:52And are living, literally, paycheck to paycheck.

01:19:56I want to thank all of our witnesses for your stories today and hand it back over to

01:19:59Whip Clark.

01:20:03Thank you so much, Congresswoman Sewell.

01:20:05I want to thank Governor O'Malley for your incredible testimony and the facts that you

01:20:12were bringing around the country.

01:20:13I believe you have another town hall tonight.

01:20:17But my real thanks are to the three of you.

01:20:20Thank you for your courage to come before and tell these stories.

01:20:26Your stories don't make people outraged.

01:20:31We're not paying attention.

01:20:33We're not paying attention.

01:20:36This is the most successful government program we have ever had.

01:20:44And in the richest country on earth, there is no public resource that has done so much

01:20:52for so many.

01:20:53If Elon has his wish and dismantled Social Security today, 22 million people fall into

01:21:01poverty.

01:21:0222 million people.

01:21:05That's the scale of the threat that we are facing.

01:21:10Without Social Security, as you have brought to life for us, and we thank each and every

01:21:16one of you again, one in three Americans would end their lives in poverty.

01:21:23And Ms. Brown, as you said, we don't know when disaster strikes.

01:21:27These are not always anticipated events in our lives.

01:21:33And that's exactly why we pay into this system.

01:21:37To help those who find themselves facing the unprecedented, a death of a dad, an illness,

01:21:44a child who needs extra supports.

01:21:49And all of this, our seniors, people with disabilities, children, they are being redefined

01:21:55by this GOP as waste, fraud, and abuse.

01:21:59Waste, fraud, and abuse.

01:22:01But all of you, and we thank you Mr. Glasgow for connecting the real human efforts, the

01:22:07people behind Social Security, who make this benefit work for people.

01:22:13That's what we're supposed to do in public service and we appreciate you doing it.

01:22:19Because Ms. Brown put it best, when Social Security's workforce is decimated, when field

01:22:30offices close, when telephones are no longer answered, when you cannot get what you need

01:22:35online, we would not survive.

01:22:41We're going to remember those words.

01:22:43We would not survive.

01:22:46And I don't know if you and your mom would have survived at a time when you lost your

01:22:51dad.

01:22:52Instead, go on to have this amazing career as a nurse.

01:22:56And boy do we need our nurses at this time as well, but that's a whole nother hearing.

01:23:02So why are we here?

01:23:04Why are they stealing the very benefits that people like you have earned across this country?

01:23:10It's because the Republican Party is no longer working for working people.

01:23:14Instead, they are working for a handful of rich donors.

01:23:19And they are making winners and losers.

01:23:21And that winner circle is getting very, very, very small.

01:23:25And in exchange for $277 million campaign contribution, you get to funnel the money

01:23:33away from the working class, defund the retirement of millions of Americans, and the money they

01:23:41have put in there and earned, one working day at a time.

01:23:47And then use that money, your money, to cut the taxes for the top 1%.

01:23:54Once they have broken our system, then they'll intend to privatize it.

01:24:01We see the playbook.

01:24:03And then they sell it off to the highest bidder.

01:24:07It is a huge plot to help the rich get richer while everyone else is left behind.

01:24:13And it just comes down to corruption and greed.

01:24:18I will briefly share a story from a constituent named Susan who came to my office with a very

01:24:23similar tale.

01:24:25For four decades, she paid into Social Security.

01:24:28She was confident that benefit she had earned would be there for her in her retirement.

01:24:36Now she is incredibly worried, terrified about what might be coming.

01:24:41So I'll leave you with her call to action.

01:24:45Susan said, do not let these evil villains destroy our precious democracy so they can

01:24:51pay fewer taxes.

01:24:54And keep the rest of us down as a permanent underclass, unhealthy, uneducated, and powerless.

01:25:03I will tell you that your testimony today, we do not feel powerless.

01:25:08We feel empowered to be in this fight with you.

01:25:12And we are going to defend everyone's right, not only to this earned benefit, but to opportunity,

01:25:19to freedom, and certainly to a secure and dignified retirement and a benefit that you

01:25:25earned when Americans need it.

01:25:29Thank you again for joining us.

01:25:31Thank you for being part of this fight with us.

01:25:34And with that, I yield to our co-chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

01:25:39Thank you so much, Whip Clark.

01:25:42And thank you to Sue and Judith and Rennie for sharing your stories and for really helping

01:25:48us put a human face on the impact that these devastating cuts would have.

01:25:54And thank you, Governor O'Malley, really, for your tireless work to defend Social Security

01:25:58and protect the 73 million Americans who count on it.

01:26:03Because the stakes couldn't be higher.

01:26:06Trump's acting Social Security Commissioner threatens to shut the agency down, and his

01:26:10Commerce Secretary demonstrated just how disconnected the Trump-Musk administration is from real-life

01:26:16Americans by callously stating that Americans wouldn't mind missing a month of benefits.

01:26:25I know there are 5 million Social Security recipients in Florida who call BS on that.

01:26:32We have the highest percentage of Social Security beneficiaries of any state in the country.

01:26:37Democrats are here today and will be here every day to say hell no to these life-threatening

01:26:44attacks.

01:26:45You cannot shut down Social Security.

01:26:47You cannot steal Americans' hard-earned benefits.

01:26:50You cannot close offices, fire workers, leave phone lines unanswered, and make it harder

01:26:54for seniors to get their Social Security checks.

01:26:58These Social Security attacks repulse Americans, yet every Republican is staying silent.

01:27:06They want Trump and Elon Musk to break Social Security, just like 99% of House Republicans

01:27:13who voted to cut Medicaid and food assistance by a trillion dollars.

01:27:18Their plan is to steal from hard-working American taxpayers, all so they can give billionaire

01:27:22donors and huge corporations another massive tax break.

01:27:27Once again, I ask my Republican colleagues, whose side are you on?

01:27:33Trump's billionaire donors or the American people?

01:27:36Democrats know our answer.

01:27:37We're on the side of the American people, and we always will be.

01:27:41This hearing stands adjourned, and our fight to save Social Security continues.

Hakeem Jeffries Leads House Democratic Steering And Policy Committee Hearing On Social Security Cuts

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