Top Social Security deputies leave amid rumored staff cuts

Most of the Social Security Administration’s regional commissioners have decided to retire at the end of this week, following mysterious meetings with agency leaders about plans to slash its workforce.

At least five of the eight regional commissioners whose offices oversee and support the agency’s frontline offices across the country are leaving, according to a source familiar with the agency and an SSA employee not authorized to speak on the record. 

The Social Security Administration had largely been spared by the Trump administration’s early efforts to cut staff across government, receiving exemptions for frontline workers from the “deferred-resignation” program, Voluntary Early Retirement Authority, and the purge of workers who had been recently hired or promoted. But that apparently changed this week, triggering the wave of retirement announcements.

“After 35 years of rewarding service with the Social Security Administration, I have decided to retire from my position as regional commissioner in the Western region, effective February 28, 2025,” one regional commissioner, Howard Bowles, wrote in an internal email obtained by Government Executive, though he did not specify the reason for his departure. “It has truly been an honor to serve the American people during my tenure.” 

Regional commissioners LeeAnn Stuever, Rick Lenoir, Rose Mary Buehler, and Raymond Egan are also leaving, according to a source familiar with the situation.

Their departures come amid rumors of impending staff cuts at SSA, where the workforce is already at a 50-year low and has toiled amid a customer service crisis born of lack of funding. Decades of congressional neglect have seen the agency’s administrative budget, which for decades sat at 1.2% of benefit outlays, shrink to under 1%.

Last year, Martin O’Malley, a former Maryland governor, took the reins of the agency with a mandate to improve service delivery. On Wednesday, O’Malley told Government Executive that the retirements of top deputies reflect an organization “in free fall.”

“We had everything moving in a better direction for the first time in a long time, and now these guys”—the Trump administration—“are intent on cratering it,” he said.

Multiple news outlets reported Wednesday that Acting Commissioner Leland Dudek is looking to halve the agency’s staff of about 57,000 employees. But two SSA employees told Government Executive that an executive at the agency said in an internal meeting that Dudek wants to cut the SSA workforce by about 7,000 people. Another person familiar with the situation also confirmed that Dudek’s goal is to get the workforce down to 50,000. It’s not clear whether this includes frontline staff.

“We have not set any reduction targets, however we will continue to pursue efficiencies within the agency and align like missions,” the agency told Government Executive in a statement. “We have no further information at this time.”

Until recently, Dudek was a mid-level employee working in the agency’s anti-fraud office. He was under investigation, the Washington Post reported, for giving unauthorized access to information to Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency team. After Trump’s first acting SSA commissioner clashed with Musk’s team, she left and Dudek was elevated to replace her. 

Regional commissioners aren’t the only ones leaving SSA. An unknown number of other employees are also leaving the agency, which shuttered its civil rights and transformation offices this week.

“I could not have predicted the rate of change over the past 30 days,” another retiring fed wrote colleagues in an email this week obtained by Government Executive. 

“Know that you are doing the right things for the right reasons, and no one can take that away from you,” said another employee leaving the agency in an email.