Kelly, Colleagues Demand Answers on Brutal Impacts of DOGE’s Social Security Cuts on American Families

This week, Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) sent a letter to the Acting Inspector General of Social Security, Michelle Anderson, calling for a complete and thorough report on how the recent DOGE cuts—including mass layoffs, pressuring staff to retire, and closing regional offices—have adversely affected Americans who rely on Social Security. Other co-signers of the letter are Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). 

“These actions have already created a chilling effect among the agency’s workforce, with several senior SSA officials with centuries’ worth of institutional knowledge and experience having already left the agency,” the senators wrote. “We are concerned that this hostile environment will foster burnout, low morale, higher attrition, and worse productivity among employees. Collectively, this will undoubtedly lead to disruption in benefit payments and increasing barriers for Americans to access their Social Security benefits. We request SSA OIG review the agency’s actions to drastically reorganize its organizational structure, close numerous offices, and significantly reduce its workforce to determine whether it has affected the agency’s ability to provide quality customer service.” 

The so-called “Department of Government Efficiency”—helmed by unelected billionaire Elon Musk—has claimed to get rid of the fraud and abuse in the federal government. But, instead, it has taken a chainsaw to essential programs, such as Social Security, and reduced staff, closed regional offices, and skyrocketed phone wait times. It is clear this delay in benefits is a cut by another name. It is vital that the Social Security Inspector General is aware of how these cruel and disastrous decisions by DOGE affect the timeliness in which seniors receive their benefits or in which the Social Security Administration is able to attend to customer service complaints, or process and hear decisions.  

To read the full letter, click here.