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US Politics

Federal judge pushes back on acting Social Security head over threat to close agency

Washington Post
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Acting Social Security commissioner Leland Dudek initially threatened to shut down the agency.

The White House intervened and a judge ruled that Dudek was "out of line" A judge issued a two-week restraining order blocking the U.S. DOGE Service from accessing sensitive taxpayer data.

The agency is the government's central hub for Americans ’ most personal and financial information.

The DOGE team of about a dozen software engineers were denied access to the building and to their government laptop computers.

The judge ordered them to delete non-anonymized Social Security data in their possession.

The rest of the agency’s more than 50,000 claims processors, call center employees, disability hearings staff and other staff, “How are they not DOGe-affiliated?” Dudek asked.