Social Safety Administration Appearing Commissioner Michelle King has stepped down from her function on the company, a Trump administration official confirmed to CBS Information.
King was changed by Leland Dudek, who oversaw the SSA fraud investigation workplace, after which she resigned, based on this official.
White Home spokesperson Harrison Fields on Monday wrote on social media concerning the information, “President Trump has nominated the extremely certified and proficient Frank Bisignano to guide the Social Safety Administration, and we count on him to be swiftly confirmed within the coming weeks. Within the meantime, the company shall be led by a profession Social Safety anti-fraud professional because the performing commissioner.”
The White Home didn’t present a particular motive for King’s departure. CBS Information has reached out to the SSA for remark.
Nancy Altman, the president of the advocacy group Social Safety Works, instructed CBS Information they heard from SSA workers that officers from the Division of Authorities Effectivity, or DOGE, had been attempting to get entry to the Enterprise Information Warehouse — a centralized database that serves as the principle hub for private, delicate info associated to social safety advantages reminiscent of beneficiary data and earnings information. Altman was instructed King had been proof against giving DOGE officers entry to the database.
“She was standing in the best way and so they moved her out of the best way. They put somebody in who presumably they thought would cooperate with them and provides them the keys to all our private information,” Altman mentioned,
The Washington Submit first reported King’s departure.
King’s exit from the administration is considered one of a number of departures of high-ranking officers involved about DOGE staffers’ potential illegal entry to non-public taxpayer info.
DOGE has accessed Treasury fee programs and is trying to entry Inside Income Service databases.
Since Mr. Trump has retaken the White Home, his billionaire adviser Elon Musk and DOGE have quickly burrowed deep into federal companies.
Altman instructed The Related Press, “There isn’t a approach to overstate how critical a breach that is. And my understanding is that it has already occurred.”
“The data collected and securely held by the Social Safety Administration is very delicate,” she mentioned. “SSA has information on everybody who has a Social Safety quantity, which is nearly all Individuals, everybody who has Medicare, and each low-income American who has utilized for Social Safety’s means-tested companion program, Supplemental Safety Revenue.”
“If there may be an evil intent to punish perceived enemies, somebody might erase your earnings report, making it not possible to gather the Social Safety and Medicare advantages you might have earned,” she mentioned.
The way forward for Social Safety has develop into a high political difficulty and was a significant level of rivalry within the 2024 election. About 72.5 million individuals, together with retirees, disabled individuals and youngsters, obtain Social Safety advantages.
