Congressman Castro, 150+ Democrats Fight Back Against Trump-Musk Plan to Gut Social Security Workforce
WASHINGTON — On Monday, Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20) and more than 150 House Democrats sent an urgent demand to the acting head of the Social Security Administration (SSA), pushing to halt a Trump-Musk plan that would gut the Social Security workforce and threaten benefits for millions of American seniors.
Multiple reports have indicated that the Trump administration is advancing plans to close Social Security field offices and significantly cut the SSA workforce. In San Antonio, more than 115,178 Social Security recipients including retirees, spouses, children, disabled workers, and children would be negatively affected.
“Shuttering field offices and gutting SSA staffing has nothing to do with ‘governmental efficiency,’” wrote the members. “As you know, SSA already operates with a customer service budget of under one percent of benefit payments. Staffing is at a 50-year low, despite serving a record number of beneficiaries. Years of understaffing and lack of resources have led to a customer service crisis at SSA. Closing the very field and hearing offices that beneficiaries rely on and gutting staff would only deepen the crisis, chaos, and confusion,” the members wrote.
“We stand with the 70 million Americans who rely on Social Security to make ends meet, and the civil servants who work tirelessly to ensure beneficiaries receive their payments in full and on time every month. We have a clear message: devastating SSA’s ability to deliver benefits to the public is a de facto benefit cut. We urge you to halt any plans for laying off SSA employees and shuttering field or hearing offices,” the members concluded.
The full text of the letter is available HERE.