Cantwell to SSA Nom: “The American People Are Very Bothered by Billionaires Taking a Shot at Their Social Security.”

Shortly after DOGE team entered Social Security Admin, Seattle constituent was incorrectly marked dead, halting his Social Security checks and clawing back thousands from his spouse

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), senior member of the Senate Finance Committee and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, pressed Frank Bisignano, President Donald Trump’s pick to serve as Commissioner of the Social Security Administration, on recent comments by Trump officials attacking Americans’ Social Security benefits.

“A lot of the American people are very bothered by billionaires taking a shot at their Social Security. I just think it sounds out of touch,” said Sen. Cantwell. “Secretary Lutnick saying, ‘stop payments to find fraud,’ and then Mr. Musk -- who everybody is questioning what his role is anyway -- ‘the big one to eliminate,’ that’s what he was saying on Social Security.”

Sen. Cantwell continued: “But now we have these patterns. Let’s go after the staffing. Let’s go after the office closures. A new requirement to re-register. The American people are scared to death that you’re really going after Social Security. So instead of hiring [more] people like my colleagues are suggesting to improve the service, basically you’re allowing Elon Musk’s little DOGE team to go in there and find fraud.”

When Sen. Cantwell asked Bisignano if Social Security should be privatized or if the age requirement should be raised, Bisignano responded, when pressed, “I've never heard a word of it and I've never thought about it … I don’t believe anybody’s thinking about that,” and “I don't believe I'm a decision maker on any of these items.”

In the State of Washington, 1.4 million people receive Social Security. Below is a breakdown of Social Security Recipients by county:

*County data sourced from SSA.gov*

At the hearing, Sen. Cantwell referenced a constituent in Seattle who was incorrectly presumed dead shortly after Elon Musk sicced his DOGE team on the Social Security Administration. DOGE staffers were specifically tasked with seeking out evidence that tens of millions of dead people are receiving Social Security benefits – a false claim made by both President Trump and Musk. Subsequently, Ned Johnson was incorrectly listed as dead by SSA, which failed to issue his next Social Security check and clawed back over $5,000 in prior benefits payments from his and his wife’s joint bank account, while his Medicare insurance was also cancelled.

Sen. Cantwell said, “And then what did he do? He had to go down to the building in Seattle, the federal building that you're trying to close, and stand in line for hours and hours and hours to try to say he wasn't dead and to stop taking his money.

“He made an in-person appointment, but it was pushed back 11 days. 11 days ultimately had to wait in line, as I said, which he said, quote, ‘they are so understaffed down there. They think their office is about to be closed down, and they don't know where they're going to go. It feels like the agency is being gutted,’ end quote. So I have to ask you, why are we allowing these people to go in and cause havoc to our constituents instead of hiring people to do the job?”

Sen. Cantwell has been a long-standing champion for Social Security and protecting Washingtonian’s benefits. Sen. Cantwell co-sponsored and voted in December 2024 to pass the bipartisan Social Security Fairness Act, which repealed two Social Security policies that unfairly limited payments for people who also receive a pension from a job that is not covered by Social Security, as well as their surviving spouses and widow(ers). In 2018, Sen. Cantwell introduced and passed the Tribal Social Security Fairness Act to correct a long-standing inequity in the Social Security Act that prevented elected tribal leaders from contributing to and accessing Social Security benefits.

Video of Sen. Cantwell’s remarks today with Bisignano are available HERE, audio HERE, and a full transcript is HERE.

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