FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 17, 2026
August 17, 2026
Contact:
Tim Kauffman
202-374-6491
[email protected]
AFGE Calls on Congress to Invest in Social Security as Program Marks 91 Years
Categories:
SSA
SSA is facing historic staffing shortages resulting in service delays to nation’s retirees
WASHINGTON – Ninety-one years after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into the law the landmark Social Security Act, the American Federation of Government Employees is calling on Congress to protect the benefits Americans have earned and take immediate action to rebuild the Social Security Administration, which is facing a historic staffing and service crisis.
SSA employees are the frontline workers responsible for processing claims, answering calls, assisting beneficiaries, and delivering the program Americans rely on throughout their lives. Yet the agency has fallen to a 59-year staffing low, lost thousands of employees, and seen service delays and backlogs grow as its workforce is stretched beyond capacity. AFGE urges Congress to provide sustained funding for aggressive hiring, training, and retention; restore workplace flexibility that helps recruit and retain experienced employees; and ensure that technology and automation support, not replace, a skilled human workforce.
“Social Security has been a promise to working Americans for 91 years, and the people who administer that promise deserve the resources and support necessary to deliver it,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said. “Congress should not allow staffing cuts, inadequate funding, office closures, or poorly implemented automation to undermine a program that millions of Americans depend on. Our members are proud to serve the public, but they cannot do more with less forever. Congress must invest in the SSA workforce, protect local field offices, demand transparency in the agency’s service data, and ensure that artificial intelligence and automated adjudication are subject to meaningful oversight.”
AFGE also calls on Congress to strengthen Social Security’s finances by asking the nation’s highest earners to pay their fair share rather than cutting benefits or raising the retirement age. The Social Security trust fund faces a financing challenge, not a reason to dismantle or weaken the program, and Congress can address that challenge while protecting working families. On this 91st anniversary, AFGE urges lawmakers to act on both sides of the equation: protect the benefits Americans have earned and fund the workforce needed to deliver them. Social Security’s future depends on a strong program, a strong agency, and the dedicated public servants who make both possible.
“The 25,000 workers represented by AFGE Council 220 are the frontline of a 91-year-old Social Security mission, delivering the earned benefits Americans depend on every day – and we demand the staffing, flexibility, dignity, and respect necessary to do that job,” AFGE Council 220 President Jessica LaPointe said. “We will not stand by while chronic understaffing is used to drive experienced workers out, privatize our public mission, or replace dedicated federal employees with AI. Lawmakers must act now to protect Social Security, its workforce, and the income and retirement security Americans have earned.”
AFGE represents about 40,000 SSA employees nationwide through a General Committee comprised of AFGE Councils 220 (field offices), 215 (hearings and appeals), 109 (payment centers), and 224 (quality review) and AFGE Locals 1923 (headquarters) and 2809 (operations center).
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