Kathleen Romig

LMFAO

The totally groundless firing of Dr. Erika McEntarfer, my successor as Commissioner of Labor Statistics at BLS, sets a dangerous precedent and undermines the statistical mission of the Bureau. For a full statement opposing this move, read:

Trump’s first BLS Commissioner, Bill Beach, calls today’s firing groundless and dangerous.
www.friendsofbls.org/updates/2025...

Medicare, Medicaid plans to experiment with covering weight loss drugs The Trump administration is planning an experiment to cover weight loss drugs under Medicare and Medicaid, potentially benefiting millions of Americans struggling with obesity.

Surprising & welcome news!

www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

Donald Trump accused of "exaggerated claims" over Social Security A think tank has said the Trump administration is "peddling false and exaggerated claims" about taxes on Social Security benefits.

Great coverage of Trump Admin misinfo on taxation of Social Security benefits, based on analysis by the Center on Budget, Cmte for a Responsible Federal Budget & Tax Policy Cntr.

Seems to have bugged the Admin! Nice to know I'm living rent-free in their heads. 💁‍♀️

www.newsweek.com/donald-trump...

SSA to make planned ID checks for additional phone transactions ‘entirely optional’ In regulatory filings made earlier this month, SSA had estimated that the planned requirements would result in over three million field office visits.

Great news! The Trump Administration is moving to reverse the unnecessary and burdensome new phone restrictions at Social Security that we wrote about earlier this week.

www.nextgov.com/digital-gove...

I get asked all the time if the Trump Administration intends to privatize Social Security, and I always say "not to my knowledge."

Welp...

My general answer to “should an AI do this?” is “would you let an intern do this without supervision?”

Totally fine if resizing a bunch of images, maybe fine for making dinner reservations, really dangerous if making benefits determinations or medical decisions alone

An administration that claims it hates bureaucracy is imposing BIG bureaucratic burdens on millions of people—Social Security beneficiaries via this nonsense, Medicaid recipients via work requirements, and regular taxpayers via the gutting of the IRS and cancellation of DirectFile.

SSA Plans Restrictions on 4 Phone Services New ID-proofing rule would send millions to Social Security offices for routine tasks

AARP calls on SSA to reverse its plan to further restrict phone service, saying "it will exacerbate the agency’s customer service crisis & disproportionately affect older adults who live in rural areas, have mobility issues or lack access to a computer or the internet."

www.aarp.org/social-secur...

SSA can and should roll back their plan to restrict phone service.

Moving forward with it would harm everyone who needs help with Social Security. They will endure longer waits as millions more people join the queue for in-person service from a dwindling number of staff.

Social Security Rolls Back Restrictions on Filing for Benefits by Phone

Earlier this year, SSA pulled back a similarly rushed plan to restrict phone claims amid widespread public concern — but now the agency is backtracking.

The phone restrictions from this spring & summer will affect even more people than that controversial proposal. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/10/b...

Reassignment Won’t Fix the Largest-Ever Social Security Staffing Cut | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities The Social Security Administration will have fewer and less experienced staff on the front lines serving the public with significantly less support, leading to worse outcomes for people who rely on So...

That’s on top of the nearly 2,000 field office staff who took buyouts this year as part of the largest staff cuts in SSA history, while undisclosed numbers took early retirement or simply left. www.cbpp.org/research/soc...

Social Security pulls field office staff to answer overwhelmed phone line The agency, which serves 73 million beneficiaries, has struggled to improve customer service amid cutbacks, long wait times and a crashing website.

At the same time SSA is creating much higher demand for field office service, it has slashed the staff that provides it.

In early July, SSA reassigned about 1,000 field office employees to answer SSA’s national 800 number. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

EXCLUSIVE: Secret policy shift could overwhelm Social Security offices with millions of people On Wednesday, the Social Security Administration (SSA) enacted a new policy that could impose massive demands on the agency's overburdened network of field offices, according to an internal SSA messag...

Those numbers are even higher when you consider that SSA indefinitely suspended the automatic process to provide SSNs to immigrants with work authorization and to update newly naturalized citizens’ status, which saved 2.9M office visits last year. popular.info/p/exclusive-...

SSA’s restrictions on phone service under Trump will force a total of 5.3 million additional in-person trips per year — a 17 percent increase over last year’s visits, necessitating 3M more hours on the road.

Nearly 2 Million More People Will Need to Visit Social Security Offices Under Revised Policy | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities SSA’s revised direct deposit policy is just the latest in a series of rushed, confusing, and chaotic changes to SSA’s telephone services.

And that’s on top of a similar restriction to phone service for beneficiaries changing bank information, requiring 1.9 million additional trips to field offices per year, which SSA put in place in April. www.cbpp.org/blog/nearly-...

Social Security Service Restrictions Burden Seniors With Long, Unnecessary Travel | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities The Trump Administration and DOGE have implemented new phone service restrictions that the Social Security Administration estimates will require people to make over 1.93 million additional trips to un...

And if they can’t, they’ll need to travel to a field office. SSA estimates that 3.4 million more people will travel to SSA offices annually because of this burdensome new policy. www.cbpp.org/research/soc...

SSA Plans Restrictions on 4 Phone Services New ID-proofing rule would send millions to Social Security offices for routine tasks

Instead, beneficiaries seeking to complete those tasks by phone will need to complete a multi-factor, multi-step online verification process to generate a one-time PIN code to help prove their identity — a process impossible for many beneficiaries to complete. www.aarp.org/social-secur...

There you can see that in mid-August, Social Security beneficiaries will no longer be allowed to perform routine tasks solely by phone — changing their addresses, checking the status of claims, requesting benefit verification letters, or asking for tax forms — as they’ve been able to do for decades.

The Trump Administration is rushing these changes with almost no public notice or feedback, burying them in a technical notice on a regulatory website. www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PR...

Trump Administration Plans to Force Millions More Seniors and People With Disabilities to Travel to Social Security’s Overburdened Field Offices | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities The Social Security Administration (SSA) is overwhelming its local offices by forcing millions more people to seek in-person service while cutting thousands of staff who provide that help. These...

Starting in less than 3 weeks, the Trump Admin plans to force millions more seniors, people with disabilities & bereaved families to travel to local Social Security offices to receive service--even as they cut thousands of the frontline staff who provide that help. www.cbpp.org/blog/trump-a...

‘Bounce-back emails and no-replies’: IRS and Social Security workforce reductions are hurting constituent service, House Democrats argue IRS has shrunk by 25%, mostly through voluntary separation incentives, while the Social Security Administration plans to shed 7,000 employees this fiscal year.

People seeking help with their Social Security ask their members of Congress to intervene as a last resort.

Now Hill constituent services staff are faced with bounce-back emails and no replies from SSA, thanks to the deepest-ever staff cut under the Trump Admin.

www.govexec.com/management/2...

Contrary to Administration’s Misleading Claims, New Senior Deduction Doesn’t Help Low- and Middle-Income Seniors, Does Deplete Social Security Trust Funds | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities The Trump Administration has been peddling false and exaggerated claims about the harmful Republican megabill’s effects on the taxation of Social Security benefits, including in a blast email from...

Contrary to the Trump Administration’s misleading claims, the new senior deduction in the harmful Republican megabill doesn't help low- and middle-income seniors . . . but it does deplete the Social Security trust funds more quickly

www.cbpp.org/blog/contrar...

DOGE builds AI tool to cut 50 percent of federal regulations The U.S. DOGE Service is using a new AI tool to eliminate federal regulations, aiming to cut 50 percent of rules by the first anniversary of President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

What in the dystopia is this?!

wapo.st/451U8wD

The inescapable fact is that SSA has paid thousands of staff to leave, causing service disruptions.

Nearly 2K field office staff took buyouts; an undisclosed number retired early. The 1K field office staff reassigned to the phone lines may boost phone metrics--but they compound the harm.

More agents answering SSA's phones means faster service--and that's a good thing for callers. As we've been saying all along, SSA needs more staff to meet customer demand.

But it's a bad thing for people seeking in-person service, or waiting for claims processing. SSA is robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Social Security pulls field office staff to answer overwhelmed phone line The agency, which serves 73 million beneficiaries, has struggled to improve customer service amid cutbacks, long wait times and a crashing website.

Final point: Do I think SSA has recently improved performance on its 800 number? Actually, yes!

Earlier this month, SSA increased teleservice center staffing by 25%, by shifting 1K staff from serving customers at field offices in person to answering phones.

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

SSA's release also mixes apples & oranges.

It claims SSA cut avg speed of answer by 80% since last year. But SSA rolled out the callback feature making ASA look low near year-end.

Last year, many more callers waited on hold—which counts toward ASA. Now most opt for a call back—which doesn't.

If a caller requests a callback (which, the now-deleted metrics show, ¾ of callers did), the hours waiting for a return call don't count.

But people are still waiting! They're just gripping their phones waiting for a ring, rather than listening to Muzak waiting for an agent to break through.

Why the vast discrepancy? SSA is spotlighting a highly misleading metric on phone service--average speed of answer.

This doesn't reflect how long it takes a caller to handle their business with the agency--not even close. And that's what people really want to know.