Guest Opinion. Even as Native elders experience higher rates of poverty than the national average, Native people receive Social Security benefits at a lower rate than the general population, with even wider gaps among Natives with disabilities.
Now, Donald Trump and Elon Musk (both billionaires) are firing thousands of Social Security Administration (SSA) workers, while closing Social Security offices across the country — putting up additional barriers between us and our earned benefits.
In rural areas and on Indian reservations, these closures could mean that people will lose their benefits if they can’t get transportation to the few offices left open.
Instead of coming out and saying they want to cut Social Security, conservatives put up barriers between us and our earned benefits, making it harder to access Social Security at a time when 10,000 people are retiring every single day.
We need to be strengthening the Social Security Administration, not dismantling it!
In response to attacks on the SSA by the Trump administration, Rep. John Larson (D-CT), ranking member of the House Social Security subcommittee, has introduced two new bills and a resolution designed to protect our Social Security system from Musk and Trump:
- The Keeping Our Field Offices Open Act will put a moratorium on the closure of Social Security Field Offices for the rest of the Trump administration.
- The Protecting Americans’ Social Security Data Act will block Elon Musk and his cronies’ access to sensitive beneficiary data and strengthen oversight and civil penalties for any privacy and disclosure violations of Social Security beneficiaries’ personal information.
- The Resolution of Inquiry will compel President Trump to disclose to Congress information about DOGE activity at SSA and any plans to close field offices or cut staff.
The Trump administration is laying the groundwork for Social Security’s collapse, with Trump’s Commerce Secretary (another billionaire) even saying last month that if Social Security checks don’t go out, anyone who complains is a fraudster.
Martin O’Malley, Social Security’s most recent Senate-confirmed commissioner, predicts that actions by Elon Musk’s DOGE will result in a “system collapse” at the SSA within the “next 30 to 90 days.” That means elders and people with disabilities won’t get their hard-earned benefits!
Judith LeBlanc (Caddo) is the executive director of Native Organizers Alliance and NOA Action Fund.