Trump’s Social Security chief backs away from ‘shutting down’ agency

WASHINGTON – The head of the US Social Security Administration has backed down from “shutting down the agency” after a federal judge rebuked him for misinterpreting a court ruling that limited billionaire Elon Musk’s access to agency information.

The agency's leader, Mr Leland Dudek, who has been cooperating with a Musk-led group tasked with reducing US government waste, said in a statement on March 21 that the court had clarified its ruling.

“Therefore, I am not shutting down the agency,” said Mr Dudek, who was appointed by US President Donald Trump as the agency’s acting commissioner.

The Social Security Administration administers benefits for tens of millions of older Americans and people with disabilities.

Since taking office in January, Mr Trump has vowed to reduce the size of government, tapping Mr Musk to lead an effort to reduce government waste. Mr Trump and Mr Musk say social security fraud is rampant and that Mr Musk's group, known as Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), needs access to agency data to identify people committing fraud to receive benefits payments.

But on March 20, US District Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander ruled the agency probably violated privacy laws by giving Mr Musk aides “unbridled access” to the data of millions of Americans.

She ordered a halt to detailed record-sharing between Mr Dudek's agency and Mr Musk's Doge.

Mr Dudek told US media outlets including Bloomberg News and the Washington Post that the court's order would require him also to restrict access to the information for agency employees, which would effectively

shut the agency down.

Judge Hollander dismissed that view on March 21.

“Such assertions about the scope of the order are inaccurate,” the judge wrote in a letter to government counsel.

She said her ruling on March 20 stated clearly that Mr Musk's team could still access records when personally identifiable information, such as names and social security numbers, had been redacted. The judge said the order was clear that agency employees could still access the unredacted documents.

“Any suggestion that the order may require the delay or suspension of benefit payments is incorrect,” Judge Hollander said.

The case has shed light on the amount of personal information Doge staffers have been given access to in the databases, and the March 20 ruling was one of the most significant legal setbacks for Doge to date.

The March 20 ruling said the information in the Social Security Administration's records includes social security numbers, personal medical and mental health records, driver's licence details, bank account data, tax information, earnings history, birth and marriage records, and employment and employer records. REUTERS