Leland Dudek’s weekend started with a phone call removing him from his job at the Social Security Administration after giving information about the agency to DOGE, the government cost-cutting initiative associated with billionaire Elon Musk. By Monday, he was named the agency’s acting commissioner.

The acting Social Security Commissioner released a statement that the agency will uphold SSA's history of protecting benefits and data amid concerns about DOGE access.

When people think of Social Security, they typically think of monthly benefits — for the roughly 69 million retirees, disabled workers, dependents and survivors who receive them today. But word that members of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is seeking access to the Social Security Administration’s data systems should conjure up thoughts of data on hundreds of millions of people.

The Social Security Administration’s acting commissioner has stepped down from her role at the agency over Department of Government Efficiency requests to access Social Security recipient information,

The staffer with billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency who resigned after a report that linked him to racism and eugenics has been reinstated at the Social Security Administration,

WASHINGTON—Leland Dudek had spent more than a decade at the Social Security Administration, including time overseeing a fraud investigation office, but was largely unknown to senior executives at the agency.