MW Is the Social Security Administration temporarily shutting down? Acting commissioner says it should, following DOGE-related court order.

By Alessandra Malito

Leland Dudek says he will 'terminate access by all SSA employees' to IT systems: reports

The Social Security Administration's acting commissioner wants to shut down the SSA temporarily following a judge's order to halt access to the agency's data by staff of the entity known as the Department of Government Efficiency, according to media reports.

A Maryland federal judge on Thursday issued a temporary restraining order to block DOGE workers from accessing sensitive Social Security data and said they must delete any information they had obtained.

District Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander said in her opinion, which was more than 100 pages long, that DOGE had violated the Privacy Act of 1974 and that it had been given "unbridled access" to individuals' personally identifiable information, also known as PII - including Social Security numbers, medical and work histories, financial and tax information, addresses, and birth and marriage certificates - without their consent.

Leland Dudek, the acting commissioner at the SSA, said that the judge's order could apply to any SSA employees, Bloomberg News reported. "As it stands, I will follow it exactly and terminate access by all SSA employees to our IT systems," the report quoted Dudek as saying.

He also said his antifraud team and IT staff could be considered DOGE affiliates. "Really, I want to turn it off and let the courts figure out how they want to run a federal agency," Dudek said, according to the report.

He also said members of the DOGE team had their building and laptop access revoked, Bloomberg News reported.

The SSA did not immediately respond to MarketWatch's request for comment, but the Washington Post and Bloomberg reported that Dudek criticized Hollander's language in her ruling and said the agency would file an affidavit asking for clarification.

"Everything in this agency is PII," Dudek told the Post. "Unless I get clarification, I'll just start to shut it down. I don't have much of a choice here."

The reports said benefits could be halted or delayed if a shutdown occurred.

The White House told MarketWatch earlier that the judge was trying to undermine President Donald Trump's agenda for government efficiency and that he would "continue to seek all legal remedies available to ensure the will of the American people goes into effect."

SSA data is accessed by employees on a "need-to-know" basis, and they must go through "rigorous screening, training, and are subject to fines and/or jail time for violating this policy," said Max Richtman, president and chief executive officer of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.

"[Elon] Musk's continued effort to justify his actions by doubling down on thoroughly debunked claims of 'massive fraud' at SSA are being laid bare as a mere pretext for acquiring every American's personal information - which could then be used as weapons against anyone who disagrees with the Trump administration's actions," Richtman said.

Musk, a close Trump ally and the CEO of Tesla $(TSLA)$ and SpaceX, is leading the work of DOGE.

When Dudek, who joined the SSA in 2009, took on the role of acting commissioner in late February, he said he would do so with transparency. "Good government means finding ways to do better," he said in a statement at the time. "The Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, is a critical part of President Trump's commitment to identifying fraud, waste and abuse, and better ways for the government to function to support its people."

In that statement, Dudek said DOGE personnel working at SSA would not be able to make changes to the agency's systems, benefits payments or other information, and that they would have read-only access to data. "DOGE personnel must follow the law and if they violate the law they will be referred to the Department of Justice for possible prosecution," he said at the time.

-Alessandra Malito

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 21, 2025 17:36 ET (21:36 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.