The temporary leader of the Social Security Administration should resign for “outrageous” political retaliation against the state of Maine, Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) said Wednesday.
Earlier this month, the Social Security Administration canceled contracts with Maine’s health department that had allowed parents to request Social Security numbers for newborns at the hospital, which is how 99% of newborns get their numbers in the U.S.
The contracts were quickly reinstated amid suspicion they’d been terminated as payback for Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) standing up to President Donald Trump in a White House meeting in February.
This week, Leland Dudek, the acting commissioner of Social Security, acknowledged he was “upset” with Mills for defying the president.
“We’ve now learned that the acting head of the SSA did, in fact, punish our state for daring to question the President. This is absolutely outrageous,” Pingree said in a statement.
“I believe Secretary Dudek should resign immediately ― or be removed from his position,” Pingree said. “The SSA is simply too important, and affects the lives of too many people, for it to be led by someone who is willing to throw an entire state into turmoil, all because its Governor refused to be intimidated by the actions of a President who is acting illegally.”
The Social Security Administration and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Dudek told HuffPost during a press call on Tuesday evening that he canceled the contracts by mistake because he didn’t understand them, but also that he didn’t like how Mills behaved in the February meeting when she told Trump she would “see you in court” over his efforts to force states to disallow transgender athletes from participating in girls’ sports.
“I think when you bring people together to have a cordial exchange, to show governments working together, you need to be respectful of each other,” Dudek said.
Dudek denied it was political retaliation, but offered no other reason for the contract cancellations, which also affected electronic death records. Every state has similar contracts; no other state saw theirs canceled.
Other members of the Maine congressional delegation did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday. Nor did the Republican chairs of the House and Senate committees that oversee Social Security.
Trump tapped Dudek for acting commissioner last month after his predecessor in the role refused to grant Musk’s team access to sensitive Social Security databases. The Senate Finance Committee is set to hold a hearing with Frank Bisignano, the man Trump picked to succeed Dudek, next week.
Dudek has drawn up plans for layoffs, consolidated internal bureaucracies and announced changes to customer service that will require more seniors to visit Social Security offices in person.
“I’ve had to make some tough choices, choices I didn’t agree with, but the president wanted it and I did it,” Dudek said in a closed-door meeting earlier this month, according to a recording obtained by ProPublica. It’s not clear what choices Dudek had in mind but it’s possible he was talking about Maine’s “enumeration at birth” and “electronic death records” contracts.
Pingree alleged a broader pattern of retaliation against Maine, pointing to the Trump administration canceling a grant for Maine fisheries and temporarily withholding $100 million from the University of Maine System.
“Ever since Governor Mills stood up to the President to defend the laws and values of our state, there have been several instances where the Administration seems to have singled out Maine for retribution,” Pingree said. “The chaos and confusion all this has caused is unconscionable.”
