Acting Social Security Administration Commissioner now said he “did not turn off the agency” after previously suggested he might do it after the judge’s decision to limit the access of government department efficiency to sensitive agency data.
Leland Dudek, Head of Acting Agency, said in a Friday statement He received a “clarification of guidelines” regarding the temporary detention order of judges related to Doge activities.
“Therefore, I did not turn off the agency,” he said in the statement. “President Trump supports keeping the social security office open and gets the right check to the right person at the right time. SSA employees and their work will continue below [temporary restraining order]. “
Signs for US Social Security Administration are seen outside of its headquarters at Woodlawn, MD., On Thursday, March 20, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. Via Getty Images)
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. Via Getty Imag
In a Thursday order, US District Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander blocked the agency from giving personnel affiliated with doge access to the agency system that contains information that can be identified personally.
In a series of interviews on Thursday and Friday, Dudek seems to suggest that the judge’s decision blocking Doge from accessing SSA data will force him to stop payment of social security and block all employees from the agency system.
“My anti-fraud team will be affiliated. Bloomberg News on Thursday. “Like standing, I will follow him correctly and end access by all SSA employees to our IT system.”
He continued, “Really, I want to turn it off and let the court find out how they want to run a federal agent.”
And separated Washington Post InterviewHe duplicated, suggested “everything in the agency” dealing with information that can be identified personally, known as PII.
“Everything in this agency is PII,” said Dudek. “Unless I get clarification, I will only start to close it. I don’t have many choices here.”
The judge pushed back Friday in a letter to advise, writing that “Any suggestion that the order may require a delay or suspension of payment of incorrect benefits.”
In the letter, he wrote that he knew the news report with Dudek’s comments that laid his belief that almost all SSA employees would be included in the scope of his order and thus had their access to the Agencies IT system that was ended.
“A statement like that about the scope of the order is inaccurate,” the judge wrote. “SSA employees who are not involved with the Doge team or in the work of the Doge team are not subject to orders. … In addition, any suggestion that orders may require delays or suspension of payment of incorrect benefits.”
AARP is one of several organizations that has condemned Dudek’s comments that threaten to close the agency.
“Social security has never missed payments and AARP and tens of millions of our members will not stand up and let it happen now,” Senior Vice President John Hishta campaign said in a statement.