In a meeting Tuesday with his senior staff and about 50 legal-aid attorneys and other advocates for the disabled and elderly, acting SSA commissioner Leland Dudek referred to the tech billionaire’s cost-cutting team as “outsiders who are unfamiliar with nuances of SSA programs,” according to a meeting participant’s detailed notes that were obtained by The Washington Post.
“DOGE people are learning and they will make mistakes, but we have to let them see what is going on at SSA,” [Les] Dudek told the group, according to the notes. “I am relying on longtime career people to inform my work, but I am receiving decisions that are made without my input. I have to effectuate those decisions.”
His remarks to skeptical advocates came on Dudek’s 12th day in a role that the White House rewarded him with after he secretly shared information with DOGE, which stands for the Department of Government Efficiency.
On Thursday morning — three hours after the publication of this story — an all-staff email went out to SSA employees informing them that they would be prevented “effective today” from accessing certain websites on their government devices, including “online shopping,” “general news” and “sports.”
“These additional restrictions will help reduce risk and better protect the sensitive information entrusted to us in our many systems,” the email stated, according to a copy obtained by The Post.
The new guidance will further limit the beleaguered staff’s ability to do their jobs, one SSA employee warned, because news sites — especially obituaries — are key sources staff rely on to prevent fraud.
“Morale is in the toilet,” the employee said. “We all know what DOGE wants to do, which is just break us, so they can privatize us.”
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