WASHINGTON, DC—After hearing reports from constituents in Maryland’s Eighth Congressional District of a temporary outage affecting the Social Security Administration’s online portal, U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin (MD-08) sent a letter to the agency’s Acting Director soliciting a full account of the reported outage.
The incident follows an unauthorized takeover of the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s payment management system by billionaire and close Trump adviser Elon Musk and his allies, unknown individuals who may lack appropriate security clearances, according to recent reporting. Over 123,000 residents of Maryland’s Eighth District receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits from SSA each month.
“The mySSA online portal is intended to facilitate easy access to both Social Security and Medicare benefits information—in addition to accompanying tax information—for every eligible American,” Rep. Raskin wrote. “Ensuring reliable access to this portal is both a critical part of upholding the public’s trust in their government and fundamental to the faithful execution of the laws passed by Congress.”
The letter asks Acting Commissioner Michelle King to provide Representative Raskin’s office with further information about the reported mySSA outage, including its duration and the number of affected users, and what steps SSA is taking to prevent future unforeseen mySSA outages.
“My constituents have been calling my office nonstop to express their fears of a disruption to their Social Security, Medicare and other earned benefits after an unelected billionaire and his unvetted staff exercised an unprecedented takeover of the U.S. government’s system of payments,” Rep. Raskin concluded.
The mySSA portal, which services 17 million users nationwide, is a free online benefits portal where Americans can check the status of their benefits applications, access proof of their benefits, easily solicit a change of address or modify their direct deposit information.
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