Pull to refresh
Logo
Daily Brief
Following Why Ranks Sign Up
Leland Dudek

Leland Dudek

Former Acting Commissioner, Social Security Administration

Appears in 2 stories

Notable Quotes

"A bunch of people who didn't know what they were doing, with ideas of how government should run — thinking it should work like a McDonald's or a bank — screaming all the time." — describing DOGE operatives, ProPublica interview, September 2025

"I was ticked at the governor of Maine for not being real cordial to the president... I screwed up."

"They did not know what they were doing and wanted to run the government like a McDonald's."

Stories

Social Security replaces local office model with centralized nationwide systems

Rule Changes

No longer at SSA

For decades, roughly 1,250 Social Security field offices operated as independent mini-agencies, each staffed with employees who knew their local communities and state-specific rules. On March 7, 2026, the Social Security Administration replaced that model with two centralized systems that route beneficiaries to any available representative anywhere in the country. When a retiree in Maine calls about a claim, they may now speak with an employee in Arizona who has never handled that state's rules.

Updated May 30

DOGE's unauthorized access to federal data systems

Rule Changes

No longer in position; publicly critical of DOGE

The Privacy Act of 1974 was written to prevent exactly this: government employees using federal databases containing Social Security numbers, health records, and bank account information for unauthorized purposes. Department of Government Efficiency staffers did it for nearly a year. They copied records of 300 million Americans to unsecured servers, shared files with outside political groups, and coordinated with election-denial activists to match voter rolls against Social Security data.

Updated May 22