While Social Security watchers have been eagerly awaiting a tardy 2021 Trustees Report, President Joe Biden made news by firing Social Security Commissioner Andrew Saul last Friday after Saul reportedly refused to resign.
A White House official told the Associated Press Biden asked Saul to resign, and his employment was terminated after he refused the request. Deputy Commissioner David Black—an appointee of former President Donald Trump along with Saul—agreed to resign.
Biden named Kilolo Kijakazi as acting commissioner while the administration conducts a search for a permanent commissioner and deputy commissioner. Kijakazi currently is the deputy commissioner for retirement and disability policy at the Social Security Administration.
Saul was confirmed by a Senate vote of 77-16 in 2019 to a six-year term that would have expired in January 2025.
Saul’s removal followed a Justice Department legal opinion that found he could be removed, despite a statute that says he could only be fired for neglecting his duties or malfeasance, AP reported. The opinion—researched at the request of the White House—concluded that a reevaluation because of a recent Supreme Court ruling meant that Saul could be fired by the president at will.
“Since taking office, Commissioner Saul has undermined and politicized Social Security disability benefits, terminated the agency’s telework policy that was utilized by up to 25% of the agency’s workforce, not repaired SSA’s relationships with relevant Federal employee unions including in the context of COVID-19 workplace safety planning, reduced due process protections for benefits appeals hearings, and taken other actions that run contrary to the mission of the agency and the President’s policy agenda,” a White House statement said.
Predictably, the move was applauded by Democrats and chastised by Republicans.
“Social Security is an essential earned benefit that we must protect and strengthen. I look forward to working with a new Commissioner who shares President Biden’s—and congressional Democrats’—view of the program and the vital support it provides to seniors, children, and people with disabilities,” said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard E. Neal (D-MA) in a statement.
“Acting Commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi, who President Biden previously appointed as the agency’s Deputy Commissioner for Retirement and Disability Policy, is a Social Security expert that has spent her career building economic security, combatting structural racism, and reducing the racial wealth gap,” Neal added. “I welcome her leadership and look forward to working with the agency’s leaders, public servants, and advocates.”
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR), said in a statement that every president should chose the personnel that will best carry out their vision for the country.
“To fulfill President Biden’s bold vision for improving and expanding Social Security, he needs his people in charge,” Wyden said, pledging to work to confirm a new commissioner “as swiftly as possible.”
Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), called the personnel move an “unprecedented and dangerous politicization of the Social Security Administration.”
Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho, the top Republican on the finance committee, and Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, issued a joint statement calling Biden’s decision “disappointing.” The statement said “Social Security beneficiaries stand the most to lose from President Biden’s partisan decision to remove Commissioner Andrew Saul.”
The labor union that represents Social Security employees also welcomed the firings, per AP reporting. Ralph de Juliis, spokesperson for the American Federation of Government Employees SSA General Committee and Council 220 President, said employee morale and agency operations had suffered under Saul and Black’s leadership.
No word on what this might do to the timing of the long-anticipated release of the 2021 annual report of the Social Security Board of Trustees, the most authoritative source to answer questions about the viability of Social Security.
A key marker in the trustees report is the date when the trust funds will be exhausted if there are no changes in taxes and benefits. In the 2020 report issued in April 2020, the trustees forecast this date would be 2035, but the report was written before the economy went into recession because of the coronavirus pandemic.
That has people on the edge of their seats regarding an updated timeline of when funds might be exhausted if no changes are made.
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