Biden to nominate O’Malley to lead ailing Social Security Administration

President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he plans to nominate former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley to be commissioner of the Social Security Administration.

If the Senate confirms O’Malley for the position, he’ll oversee an agency that administers benefits to nearly 70 million people, including retirees, disabled people and children, but which faces the prospect of being unable to pay out full benefits in a decade.

“Governor O’Malley is a lifelong public servant who has spent his career making government more accessible and transparent,” Biden said in a statement.

O’Malley could not be reached for comment by phone call or email on Wednesday.

The agency’s Social Security and Medicare programs have for years faced “significant financing issues,” according to a 2023 annual report.

Available benefits are set to be cut by more than 20% in 2033, according to the report. Last year’s report stated that the agency would be able to pay 100% of scheduled benefits until 2034.

Meanwhile, staffing shortages, aging technology and mismanagement have hindered the agency’s struggling customer service, according to a report from The Washington Post.

The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 42,000 Social Security Administration employees, applauded Biden’s choice of nominee, which came days after the union announced a new workplace contract with the agency.

AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a statement that O’Malley “has the skills and experience necessary to tackle the various challenges facing SSA like the recruitment and retention of its dedicated workforce.”

The union has called on Congress to increase funding for the agency to boost staffing levels.

Biden pointed out in his statement that, as governor, O’Malley adopted data and performance-driven technologies that improved access to state government services for Marylanders.

Outgoing Sen. Ben Cardin, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees the agency, said in a statement that O’Malley, “loves data and has a strong track record making government work better based on that data.”

O’Malley would replace Kilolo Kijakazi, whom Biden tapped as acting commissioner in 2021 after firing former Commissioner Andrew Saul, a holdover from the Trump administration who refused to step down.

Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said her organization was pleased to see Biden nominate someone to lead the agency after two years with an acting commissioner.

“His and the president’s top priority when it comes to Social Security should be to make reforms as quickly as possible to avoid the across-the-board 23% benefit cut beneficiaries are currently headed towards,” MacGuineas said in a statement to The Daily Record.

The committee has called on lawmakers to restore the solvency of the trust funds, and it supports, among other proposals, increasing the Social Security payroll tax rate and allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices with manufacturers.

The committee has also advocated for raising the Social Security retirement age, a proposal O’Malley has previously rejected.

The Social Security Administration is headquartered in Woodlawn, just outside Baltimore, where O’Malley served two terms as mayor before his time as governor from 2007 to 2015.

Prior to becoming mayor in 1999, O’Malley was a Baltimore City Council member and was appointed as the assistant state’s attorney for Baltimore.

During a bid for the Democratic nomination for president in 2016, O’Malley called for expanding Social Security benefits as he sought to make up ground on eventual nominee Hillary Clinton, according to news reports in August 2015.

In a statement supporting O’Malley, Nancy Altman, president of the organization Social Security Works, said that the former governor is “the fighter that the American people need” leading the agency.

“The Senate should swiftly confirm O’Malley so he can work to provide the American people with that first-class service and fight for increasing, not cutting, their benefits,” Altman said.