Exiting SSA Commissioner Pleads for Funding, Says Progress at Risk

Outgoing Social Security Administration (SSA) Commissioner Martin O’Malley touted progress at the agency and stressed the need for continued funding at his final congressional hearing as commissioner. 

The hearing before the House Committee on Appropriations’ subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies was scheduled to go over the agency’s 2025 budget request. 

At the hearing, Commissioner O’Malley noted that staffing levels have dipped below fiscal year (FY) 2023 levels, after progress made on hiring was erased by the need for a continuing resolution in FY 2024. 

“Given the ever-climbing levels of beneficiaries, our progress will be short-lived without your immediate help. While modernization and other efficiencies have helped for some things, there is no way around the fact that the agency cannot keep doing more with less,” said Commissioner O’Malley in his opening statement. 

Commissioner O’Malley noted that SSA is serving more customers than ever before with staffing levels at 50-year lows. The commissioner called it a “self-inflicted wound” noting that the “mismatch between rising workloads and declining staffing continues to grow.”

Without additional funding the commissioner warned that wait times on the phone could spike, after SSA succeeded in driving them down from 42 minutes in November 2023 to less than 13 in October 2024. 

He also warned that progress on disability claims could be at risk. O’Malley touted that SSA has processed more claims than it received for 22 straight weeks.

SSA is asking for $15.4 billion for FY 2025, while Republicans on the Appropriations Committee recommended $13.8 billion. 

Telework Debate

Another heated point of debate was telework within the agency.

While Commissioner O’Malley credited telework options with improving workplace attrition rates and morale, Republicans on the committee saw it differently. 

In fact, Subcommittee Chairman Representative Robert Aderholt (R-AL) took aim at the SSA’s telework policies, saying that with two days of telework “less than half of the Social Security Administration employees are reporting to work.” 

Commissioner O’Malley noted that “they work 5 days a week.”

Chairman Aderholt also quizzed the commissioner on SSA overtime policies and conflict of interest among employees. 

SSI Eligibility

Another topic was reviewing Supplemental Security Income (SSI) eligibility. Commissioner O’Malley asked Congress to reform the SSI review process, noting that the current process of requiring monthly reviews should be changed to annual reviews. 

The commissioner said that “40% of administrative effort” goes to “4% of our benefits” to enforce income reporting for SSI, likening the process to requiring claimants to “gargle peanut butter.”