WASHINGTON — Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is moving to downsize the Social Security Administration with office closures, cutbacks on phone services and new rules requiring in-person visits for some prospective beneficiaries to register.
And DOGE is making those changes without consulting or notifying some of the most senior lawmakers on Capitol Hill who oversee Social Security, including GOP allies of President Donald Trump.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Finance subcommittee on Social Security, said he had not been told ahead of time about DOGE’s moves at the agency.
“No, I have not been,” Grassley told NBC News.
Asked if it would be helpful to his job if he were given a heads-up, Grassley repeated, “I have not been. I have not been.”
Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., a Senate Finance Committee member who on Tuesday pressed Trump’s nominee to lead the Social Security Administration about long wait times for customer service, said in an interview that he, too, hasn’t been in the loop for the administration’s changes.
“No, we haven’t,” he said. “I haven’t had any heads-up on any specific announcements.”
Daines said he would appreciate advance notice about the changes the administration makes to Social Security.
“I’d like to know about it, yeah,” he said.
Even Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who led bipartisan efforts to overhaul Social Security in recent years, was not consulted or given advance notice by the White House. Cassidy’s talks with Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, have failed to yield consensus and appear to be on pause, with the mild-mannered King torching Musk and the administration this week over Social Security.
Spokespeople for Cassidy and King declined to comment. A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Social Security advocates and congressional Democrats decry the Musk-led changes to the agency as a backdoor move to curtail access to benefits. They cite Musk’s antagonistic rhetoric, recently calling Social Security a “Ponzi scheme,” as evidence of his intentions.
“Fewer people will get benefits because of what they’ve done. This is another way of killing Social Security, plain and simple,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters Tuesday. “They can’t outwardly cut benefits because it would be so unpopular. They’re just making it harder for you to get benefits. Same thing. Different route, same nasty result. Americans aren’t falling for it.”
Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees Social Security, said Tuesday that Trump’s critics are engaged in “scare tactics,” and added that the president “has said very clearly that we are not going to cut Social Security benefits.”
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said staffing at the Social Security Administration is still a work in progress for DOGE.
“They’ve had some layoffs, and then they’ve rehired people. They’re still trying to figure out what the right numbers are. And obviously, the sooner they can get that settled, the better,” Cornyn said. “We’re in a transition period, and there’s going to be a number of changes, plus and minus. And I think — ultimately, I don’t think those kinds of personnel decisions are going to be best made by Congress.”
Asked about Musk’s remark that Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme,” Cornyn said, “Well, I think I understand he means that there’s fewer and fewer people working and supporting more and more people, and it’s unsustainable. I happen to agree with that.”
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., offered his support for DOGE when asked about Social Security, saying he hasn’t personally heard concerns from constituents in his state.
“I believe that they’re going to do the right things,” he said, adding that they understand their responsibility to “answer the phones and take care of Social Security recipients” in Florida and other states.
And it isn’t just DOGE’s efforts on Social Security: Musk’s operation is slashing other federal programs without consulting Congress.
When reports first emerged of the executive order Trump eventually signed to dismantle the Education Department, Cassidy, the top Republican on the committee overseeing the agency, was not given a copy of the order nor were top aides given details on what the administration’s plans were, according to two Republican sources familiar with the matter.
When Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired top military officers and lawyers at the Pentagon, there was no formal briefing for even the top Republicans in the Senate, including Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker, R-Miss.
And when the White House began negotiating with Russia to bring an end to its war in Ukraine, even Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a top Trump ally and supporter of Ukraine, wasn’t aware of the details and disagreed with some of the rhetoric coming out of the White House.
In an interview this month on DOGE’s cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is responsible for administering foreign aid and humanitarian assistance, Graham said the dialogue between the administration and Congress was “bad” in the first few weeks of the administration.
“First it was bad, and now it’s better. It has gotten better since the president spoke at the Cabinet meeting and said, ‘We need a scalpel, not a hatchet,’” Graham said, referring to Trump’s March 6 comments after members of his Cabinet expressed frustration with Musk. “Things have improved.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
