[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 55 (Wednesday, March 26, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H1278-H1279]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      DON'T TOUCH SOCIAL SECURITY

  (Mr. Courtney of Connecticut was recognized to address the House for 
5 minutes.)
  Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, last year, candidate Trump, President-
elect Trump, and now-President Trump repeatedly told the American 
people that he won't touch Social Security. We are now 2 months into 
his administration, and we are finding that the opposite is true.
  A headline yesterday in The Washington Post read: ``Long waits, waves 
of calls, website crashes: Social Security is breaking down.''
  Next to me is a poster board from The Wall Street Journal. Some 
people may say that The Washington Post is always critical of President 
Trump, but this is The Wall Street Journal, an impeccable, center-right 
newspaper whose headline states: ``Dealing With Social Security Is 
Heading From Bad to Worse.''
  The agency that administers benefits is cutting staff and restricting 
benefits as part of the Department of Government Efficiency review, or 
DOGE, the Trump initiative.
  Let's be more specific. What are some of those intentional policies 
that are being put into place? We know that there was a wave of those 
fork-in-the-road retirements that hit Social Security and reduced 
staff. We know that Social Security has already announced that the 
workforce is going to be reduced from 57,000 all across America to 
50,000.
  Some may say: What is wrong with that? We should sort of downsize our 
workforce, make them more efficient.
  The fact of the matter is, if you look at how many people are 
beneficiaries today, with the baby boomer retirements that are swelling 
the ranks of Social Security beneficiaries, it is 73 million Americans 
now who are receiving Social Security benefits. These are people with 
retirement benefits, children who have lost a parent, and people on 
disability.
  We now have a bigger-than-ever population of people collecting Social 
Security benefits and a reduced staff.
  To put this in perspective, in 2010, not that long ago, the size of 
the Social Security workforce was 68,000, 18,000 more than what the 
Trump administration is targeting for today, and the number of 
beneficiaries in 2010 was 54 million Americans as opposed to 73 million 
Americans today. We have more people who need help with the Social 
Security system and fewer staff to help them navigate it.
  In just 1 week from today, they are pretty much going to shut off 
phone service for Social Security beneficiaries who are trying to sign 
up with their bank information to get on Social Security. This is 
something that has been normal practice, using very precise identifiers 
to make sure that waste, fraud, and abuse do not occur.
  By the way, Social Security's accuracy is 99.7 percent. That has been 
verified by outside audits and by the Social Security trustees. Yet, 
despite that track record, what they are going to tell Social Security 
beneficiaries, who sometimes struggle with online enrollment in other 
areas of their lives, is that they are not going to have the 
opportunity to use a phone service, which, again, has been in practice 
in the past for decades.
  They are also closing 47 Social Security offices across the country. 
Again, at a time when the number of people who need to interact and 
interface with the Social Security system is bigger than ever, they are 
shutting down offices, laying off staff, and shutting off phone 
service.
  The wait times, in terms of people trying to get appointments in 
person, are going to get longer. Just in the Northeast, we have already 
been told that the White Plains office in New York is going to be 
closed, and they are telling people to go to New Haven, Connecticut, my 
State. That is about a 2-hour drive for people if they want to have an 
in-person appointment who are now going to basically have a shuttered 
building in a very densely populated area outside of New York.
  The notion that the Social Security system, by this administration, 
is not being trusted, the opposite is true. DOGE is behind this, as The 
Wall Street Journal reported. Elon Musk, in an interview with FOX News, 
made it crystal clear his goal is to eliminate Social Security and get 
$800 billion to $900 billion of savings out of the Social Security 
system, which we know today is probably one of the most efficient 
agencies in the Federal Government in terms of the accuracy of their 
payouts.
  The pathway ahead of us is very crystal clear. Congress has to stand 
up as a coequal branch of government that enacted Social Security in 
1935 and for 90 years--we are celebrating the 90th anniversary of 
Social Security--has been a pillar of middle-class retirement security 
and helping children who have lost a parent.
  Mr. Speaker, it is not an entitlement. It is not welfare. It is an 
earned benefit that people pay into. They should get that benefit when 
it is their turn to get the help from Social Security that we promised 
as Congress.
  Defend Social Security. Stand up for Social Security. Don't touch 
Social Security.

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