In 2019, then-President Donald Trump appointed Andrew Saul as the Social Security Commissioner for a six-year term. But we live in Biden’s American now and they don’t like having leftover Trump staff in the White House, meaning the current admin has been trying to bully Saul into a resignation.
After many attempts from President Joe Biden requesting Saul’s resignation they decided to simply fire him halfway through his term. Now the head of the Social Security Administration is furious and swore to fight his unlawful termination in federal court.
Saul told The Washington Post he regarded himself as the “term-protected Commissioner of Social Security,” adding that if he is unable to remotely clock in to work Monday morning he will be seeing.
“This was the first I or my deputy knew this was coming,” Saul said later of his firing. “It was a bolt of lightning no one expected. And right now, it’s left the agency in complete turmoil.”
Deputy Commissioner David Black submitted his resignation without conflict.
Presumably, the White House will cite a Supreme Court ruling that the formation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was unconstitutional in justification of the firing. The Trump administration took legal action after an Obama-appointed official refused to resign.
“Since taking office, Commissioner Saul has undermined and politicized Social Security disability benefits, terminated the agency’s telework policy that was utilized by up to 25 percent of the agency’s workforce, not repaired SSA’s relationships with relevant Federal employee unions including in the context of COVID-19 workplace safety planning, reduced due process protections for benefits appeals hearings, and taken other actions that run contrary to the mission of the agency and the President’s policy agenda,” a White House official said in a statement.
I agree with @ChuckGrassley. This removal would be an unprecedented and dangerous politicization of the Social Security Administration. https://t.co/Y33G4YoZKf
— Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) July 9, 2021
Republicans protested the termination, with Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell calling the move “an unprecedented and dangerous politicization of the Social Security Administration.”
