Laura Haltzel is the first former Social Security Administration (SSA) official who was present for the Trump administration’s takeover of the agency to speak out publicly in an on-the-record interview. In her first interview since leaving SSA, Haltzel told our blog, Entitled to Know, that Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has “traumatized” SSA employees — and created “gross inefficiencies” in the system.
Haltzel resigned her post as Associate Commissioner Office of Research, Evaluation and Statistics on February 28, accepting an early retirement offer that the administration extended to all SSA employees.
In our blog post, Haltzel describes an atmosphere of chaos and fear at SSA headquarters, based on her own experience and communications with colleagues in other departments. When asked why she decided to go public, Haltzel explained, “I swore an oath to defend the Constitution against every enemy, foreign and domestic… and I witnessed illegal and unconstitutional activity by our top leadership in the Executive Branch, by President Trump, and by Elon Musk.”
Haltzel criticizes the leadership of acting Commissioner Leland Dudek, who took over after his predecessor, Michelle King. resigned and appeared sympathetic to Musk and DOGE’s mission. In fact, before being promoted, Dudek reportedly had been placed on administrative leave for cooperating with Musk and DOGE’s requests for access to sensitive data. According to the Washington Post, Dudek told Social Security advocates at a closed-door meeting that Musk and Trump were “calling the shots” at SSA and he was merely implementing their policies.
She did not personally interact with Dudek, but Haltzel was told by colleagues that his personal style was “very mercurial and dismissive.” She says that Dudek seemed uncurious about the workings of the agency he had just taken over. When staffers would brief Dudek on their departments’ operations, Haltzel says, he would “cut them off after one minute and say, ‘I’ve heard enough.”
THE FULL STORY IS AVAILABLE ON OUR BLOG:
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