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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 Mar 7

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. For nearly a year, Department of Government Efficiency staffers did it anyway—copying the records of 300 million Americans to unsecured servers, sharing files with outside political groups, and coordinating with election-denial activists to match voter rolls against Social Security data.

Updated Jan 26