Former Gov. O’Malley promises to modernize Social Security agency

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley told senators on Thursday he’s ready to hang up his political spurs and oversee a major modernization at the Social Security Administration, calling the agency’s current level of customer service “unacceptable.”

Nominated by President Biden to be the next administrator, Mr. O’Malley cast himself as technocratic-minded and ready to focus on getting the agency to answer calls, speed up appeals and make the right payments on time so Americans get what they were promised.

“As a mayor, I learned there is no Democrat or Republican way to fill a pothole,” he told the Senate Finance Committee.

He said seniors who call to ask about their benefits average 37 minutes on hold. People with disabilities wait more than seven months for an initial ruling on their disability applications, and, if they are rejected, appeals can last for years.

“The truth is today the Social Security Administration is serving 50% more customers and beneficiaries on the same staffing it had 20 years ago,” he said.

Mr. Biden fired the previous commissioner, Andrew Saul, in 2021.

He was appointed during the Trump administration and had irked the new president by clashing with labor unions over coronavirus work policies and a 2019 order curtailing a generous telework policy. Democrats said he also had made it tougher for beneficiaries to get hearings on appeals over decisions on their benefits.

Both Republicans and Democrats sought assurances that Mr. O’Malley didn’t intend to be a political actor.

“This position that you have been nominated for is not about politics. It’s not about politics at all. It’s about service,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat who leads the Finance Committee.

Mr. O’Malley, who was a city councilor and mayor in Baltimore, served two terms as governor and made an ill-fated run for president in 2016, said Thursday he was ready to move on.

“I don’t miss a lot of aspects of running for office,” he said. “What excites me about this challenge is that it’s all about operations. It’s all about improving customer service.”

Former Sen. Barbara Mikulski, Maryland Democrat, testified on behalf of Mr. O’Malley, saying he was able to wrangle an unwieldy state government.

“Some people worried was Martin O’Malley going to be a showboat — but guess what? He turned out to be a tugboat,” Ms. Mikulski said. “He actually moved the ship of state in the right direction, often pulling it against its will.”

Social Security’s headquarters is based on the outskirts of Baltimore.

Democrats and Republicans both seemed to expect Mr. O’Malley to win confirmation, and they loaded him up with issues to solve.

Mr. Wyden confronted Mr. O’Malley with a story from an Oregon constituent with a disability who has been getting Supplemental Security Income checks and who has been living with her parents, to whom she pays some rent.

Social Security has notified her that her living arrangement means she has been getting rental assistance, which means her checks should have been lower. They sent her a bill to repay $9,000.

Sen. Bob Casey, Pennsylvania Democrat, said Americans who wrongly lost benefits due to collecting some COVID-19 assistance are also being told they need to pay back.

“That’s an outrage,” Mr. O’Malley said.

He said Social Security faces immediate issues of customer service but also acknowledged the longer-term problem of insolvency,

Mr. O’Malley said his job will be to figure out the service, and to provide the best data to Congress to make the changes for the financial problems, which he said were “over the horizon.”

The program currently takes in less than it pays out each year and is drawing on its trust fund. That’s the pile of IOUs stored up over the last four decades as payroll tax revenue plumped outstripped annual costs.

Estimates say the trust fund will be depleted in about a decade, and at that point Social Security will only be able to pay out what it’s collecting in taxes. That would cut every benefit check by 23%.