Social Security payments at risk from DOGE action, warns acting chief

by Gregory Korte and Zoe Tillman

The Trump administration is threatening to all but shut down the Social Security Administration in response to a judge’s ruling blocking activities by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency — an action that could delay payments to millions of beneficiaries caught in the middle of the legal battle.

Acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek said the temporary restraining order issued Thursday is so broad in blocking access to data by “DOGE affiliates” that it could apply to any Social Security employee.

“My anti-fraud team would be DOGE affiliates. My IT staff would be DOGE affiliates,” Dudek said. “As it stands, I will follow it exactly and terminate access by all SSA employees to our IT systems.”

He said he would ask the judge to immediately clarify her order. “Really, I want to turn it off and let the courts figure out how they want to run a federal agency,” he said.

The judge concluded that the unions and the retiree-advocacy group that sued were likely to succeed in arguing that DOGE access to the agency’s systems violated US laws meant to safeguard sensitive information.

The standoff represents a new escalation in the multifront battle between President Donald Trump and the judiciary, potentially putting 73 million Americans who receive old-age or disability benefits in the crossfire.

‘All Legal Remedies’

The White House said Trump would “continue to seek all legal remedies available to ensure the will of the American people goes into effect.”

“In an 134-page decision, a radical leftist-judge ordered Social Security Administration employees not to implement the President’s government-efficiency agenda,” said White House deputy press secretary Harrison Fields. “This is yet another activist judge abusing the judicial system to try and sabotage the President’s attempts to rid the government of waste, fraud, and abuse.” 

Courts have previously restricted access by DOGE staffers to sensitive Treasury payment systems until they certify that they’ve received proper clearance and training. But Thursday’s order by US District Judge Ellen Hollander goes even further, forbidding access to any non-anonymized data. She also ordered DOGE staff to delete or purge any Social Security Administration data that it already had in its possession.

“The DOGE Team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion,” Hollander wrote. “It has launched a search for the proverbial needle in the haystack, without any concrete knowledge that the needle is actually in the haystack.”

Trump has repeatedly claimed that many more than 20 million people may be receiving Social Security benefits despite being at such an advanced age that it’s unlikely they’re still alive. 

‘Missing Dates’

Dudek has pushed back on that claim, saying it represents a misunderstanding of how the agency keeps Social Security numbers and active beneficiaries in two separate databases. But after Trump repeated the claim in an address to Congress this month, Dudek said the agency is nonetheless “actively correcting the inconsistencies with missing dates of death.”

That project was a major focus for 10 DOGE team members at Social Security, many of whom had access to sensitive databases.

“Ironically, the identity of these DOGE affiliates has been concealed because defendants are concerned that the disclosure of even their names would expose them to harassment and thus invade their privacy,” Hollander wrote. “The defense does not appear to share a privacy concern for the millions of Americans whose SSA records were made available to the DOGE affiliates, without their consent, and which contain sensitive, confidential, and personally identifiable information.”

Immediately after the order, the DOGE team members had their building and laptop access revoked, Dudek said. 

Frank Bisignano

Dudek was himself a senior adviser on Social Security’s anti-fraud team before Trump hand-picked him as acting commissioner in a remarkable weekend shakeup at the agency. He’s serving until Trump’s permanent nominee, former Fiserv CEO Frank Bisignano, is confirmed by the Senate. Bisignano’s confirmation hearing is Tuesday.   

“The work of DOGE is the work of all Americans,” Dudek said. “They have helped us modernize our systems, improve our processes, prevented waste, and improved outcomes for citizens. The president should be proud.”