By John I. Adams, Chairman, TSCL
Last year, the Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE, dominated the headlines. Formed when the new administration took office and initially headed by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, the new agency made waves by slashing government contracts it deemed wasteful and shrinking the federal bureaucracy. Now it appears the agency’s brief turn in the spotlight has come to an official close, months before its official charter expires in July 2026.
According to a Reuters interview with Charles Kupor, director at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), DOGE no longer exists, at least as a centralized entity. However, many staffers have moved on to other agencies and its legacy remains—in particular, at the Social Security Administration (SSA).
Total staffing at the SSA has shrunk dramatically in the aftermath of DOGE, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank based in Washington, DC. The SSA has seen staff cuts at its headquarters, its regional offices, its field offices, call centers, and its program service centers. This has resulted in longer wait times to set an appointment, reach someone at a call center, and receive initial decisions on disability benefits. This comes after the agency saw its total staff gradually decrease over five consecutive years from 2020 to 2024, even as the total number of beneficiaries the agency serves increased each year during this timeframe.
The Trump administration defends these staff cuts by pointing to opportunities to reduce fraud, waste, and abuse at the agency while leveraging technology to increase efficiency despite the headcount reduction. Skeptics, on the other hand, suggest that DOGE’s cuts will cause lasting damage to America’s retirees, with some claiming the fallout has already begun. Representative Norma Torres counts herself among the harshest critics of DOGE’s cuts at Social Security. Staff cuts “left seniors and people with disabilities stranded without help,” she said in a press release. To reverse any potential consequences, she has introduced a new bill, the Repairing Social Security After Trump and DOGE Act.
If passed into law, the bill would direct the SSA to identify people unable to apply for benefits due to hardships caused by the administration’s actions, allow these people to recover any benefits they may have missed, and waive disability insurance waiting periods. It would also require the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which provides audits to Congress to evaluate the effectiveness of federal agencies, to investigate and document any potential damage.
However, while TSCL sees this legislation as promising, it fails to address a much larger issue looming at the SSA. The trust fund that pays Social Security benefits is on track to reach insolvency and enact automatic benefit cuts of 23 percent in 2033 because the program pays more in benefits than it brings in from taxes every year, which would have devastating consequences for seniors. Our internal research shows that a majority would have trouble paying monthly bills, cut back on food and groceries, and skip or delay medical care if benefit cuts take effect.
While ensuring that efforts to increase the government’s productivity and efficiency do not affect people who depend on its services is highly important, we as seniors need much more than that. We’re calling for long-term, bipartisan solutions that protect the full benefits American seniors earned and depend on. To see a full list of the policies we’re advocating for, visit our website.