The SSA did not respond to requests from Wired about what Doge operatives are working on within the agency.
At a meeting Tuesday, U.S. Doge Services Administrator Amy Gleason told staff that Musk engineers and several legacy USDS workers will improve “ID” proofreading to head to SSA, sources who were present at the meeting said. US Doge Service is a permanent rebranding of US digital services. Identity proof is a process used by SSAs and identifies the person they say to access their interests. This process involves registering with an ID app such as the government's own login.gov or a third-party service such as ID.me.
At last week's meeting, Dudek, representative of the SSA, told staff that “Doge People” effectively handles the day-to-day operations at the agency and “will make mistakes,” according to the Washington Post. He also revealed that he had direct contact with the White House.
“I work for the president,” Dudek said according to a lengthy recording of the meeting obtained by Propublica. “I need to do what the President told me to do. I had to make some tough choices, choices I disagreed, but the president wanted it, and I did. ”
In February, Dudek outlined plans to fire 7,000 employees at the SSA and close more than half of the agency's regional offices, confirming that many of the SSA's most senior staff are leaving. This week, the agency reportedly gave up the idea of abandoning clients' phone services altogether after the Washington Post reported on the plan.
SSA has a highly complex system built on decades-old technology, and contains the most sensitive personal information held anywhere within the US government. Experts say the threat that Doge engineers made mistakes within these systems is enormous.
Former SSA Commissioner Martin O'Malley warned last week that following the Doge invasion, the SSA system has “collapsed” and that recipients can see “interrupted profits.” It works without any confusion. ”
“It's a useful fear to extract personally identifiable information or ruin the source code without the necessary controls or rigour,” says John McGing, a former SSA employee who worked for almost 40 years at the agency.
Additionally, Doge has imposed a $1 spending limit on federal credit cards, leading to local SSA offices experiencing the issue of purchasing basic consumables, including paper and toner, according to details wired by SSA employees.
“We've started rationing,” the source says. “People want four copies of their benefits verification letters. We've been telling them to give them that and make a copy of them.”
The provision of sign language interpreters for appointments in SSA has also been suspended due to a $1 spending limit. “We have to go back to that client and tell them that we can't provide interpreters, even though everything on our website says we will provide it,” the source said, citing the incident that took place this week.
According to an email reviewed by Wired, SSA staff are also unable to order death certificates. This is used to check if anyone in the system is dead.
The source added that the office will also be unable to pay the company that shreds piles of documents printed daily.
Timothy Marchman contributed the report.
