Social Security Chief's 'Turn It Off' Comment Is Latest Insane Turn For Beleaguered Agency
HuffPost
"I want to turn it off and let the courts figure out how they want to run a federal agency," acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek actually said.
WASHINGTON – The temporary director of the Social Security Administration suggested agency operations would be so impaired by a court banishing Elon Musk’s DOGE team from sensitive databases that he would just turn out the lights.
A federal judge on Thursday ordered Social Security to revoke the so-called Department of Government Efficiency’s access to various databases containing Americans’ personal information, and for DOGE employees or affiliates to delete any data they’ve taken and remove any software they’ve installed.
In an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday evening, Leland Dudek, the acting commissioner of Social Security, said his own staff would count as DOGE affiliates and seemingly joked about shutting down the entire agency.
“As it stands, I will follow it exactly and terminate access by all SSA employees to our IT systems,” Dudek said. “Really, I want to turn it off and let the courts figure out how they want to run a federal agency.”
On Friday, Dudek indicated he was actually talking to the Justice Department about shutting down Social Security ― and potentially halting benefits for 70 million people ― if the court didn’t clarify its order.
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