Transcript

5.17.25 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of the Washington Post for today, Saturday,
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May the seventeenth. Your reader is Alice Stainer, with reminder
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that RADIOI is an organization for those blinded with disabilities
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in being able to hold or reprinted material. I will
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start with the front page of Today's Washington Post on
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the far left. At the top, High Court holds our
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backs hold on wartime at powers, justices don't address broader
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question over the legality of deportations by Anne E. Merrimoal.
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Then there is a picture entitled withering air campaign in
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Gaza may presage ground assault and you just see a
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mob of people holding pots and pans and are trying
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to get food from a community kitchen Friday in Khan
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Jannis on the Gaza Strip following Israeli strikes this week
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that have killed hundreds. We are going all the way.
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Prime Minister Benjamin nettinarhu vowed. Then to the right of
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that picture, Trump's budget package is blocked. Phiscal hawks want
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cuts to spending. Moody sites the debt as lower's US
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credit rating. This is by Jacob Boje and Marianna Sotomayor.
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Below the picture of those in the Gaza Strip is
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a picture of Donald Trump visiting Moses Ben Maimon the
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synagogue at an inner faith center in Abu Dhabi, the
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final stop of his Midi's trip, and you can see
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he's got two Arab leaders on either side of him
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in a mosque. Trump claims deals that pre date his presidency.
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Of contracts announced in Middle East. Half a dozen go
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back before January that cat Zorozuski, Abigail Hausner, and Susanna George.
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To the left of that and below the first article
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about the Supreme Court reform. UK's surge could mark political
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tipping point. Recent local election wins have sparked panic in
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the two major parties by Steve Hendricks England. And to
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the right of that is an article entitled Fetterman's isolation
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adds to Democratic disquiet. The Senator Pennsylvania is increasingly withdrawing
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as the party works to regain its footing. This is
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by Liz Goodwin and Theedoric Maya. And there is a
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picture of Senator Fetterman in a doorway was of an
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elevator head of a vote on May seventh in the
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US Capitol, and he's in his normal sweatshirt with a
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hoodie on it's a blue one, and he's got his
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hands in a prayer fold as the door to the
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elevated close and to the very right of that. And
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below the budget article DOJ's own hours thwart its efforts
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to remake SSA. Many changes by Musk's agency unravel others
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hurt customer service. Mahannah Madison, Lisa Reene, and Meryl Hornfeld
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and I will start with the first article. The Supreme
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Court maintains block on some Trump deportations of migrants. The
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justices did not address the broader question about whether Trump
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officials can legally invoke the Alien Enemies Act to target
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alleged gang members. And there's a picture of a large
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banna being held. It's in black with a yellow stripe
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going across the top and in big white no deportations,
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in big white letters, no deportations. It is beheld by
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two ladies, one in a sort of a reddish maroon
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T shirt and the other in a blue one. The
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blue one has a ball cap on, and the gentleman
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on the right of them says abolish Ice on his
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T shirt and he holds two signs free them all
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kidnapped by Ice and Audrey. And then they're just pictures
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of other people around the demonstration. And there it is
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outside the permanent mission of El Salvador to the United
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Nations to protest the deportation of migrants with a due
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process by Anne Merrimo, The Supreme Court on Friday kept
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a block on the Trump administration's use of a rarely
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invoked wartime power to deport migrants in North Texas, and
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said administration officials had not given those targeted for removal
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last month sufficient time to challenge their deportations. The justices
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called it the taine's interests particularly weighty because of the
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risk of removal to a notorious mega prison in El Salvador,
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where the migrants could face indefinite detention. President Donald Trump's
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use of the Alien Enemies Act of seventeen teen ninety
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eight to target a Venezuelan gang is one of the
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most controversial parts of his mass deportation efforts, which are
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at the center of increasingly tense standoffs between his administration
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and the courts. Trump responded angrily to the Friday order
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in a post on truth Social writing, and these are
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all in caps and in quotes. The Supreme Court won't
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allow us to get criminals out of our country. The
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Justices had told the administration in early April that it
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must give targeted detainees sufficient notice, within a reasonable time
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and in such a manner that they can challenge their
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removal in the jurisdictions where they are being held. The
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High Court intervened again a week later, issuing an extraordinary
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middle of the night order to temporarily halt deportations of
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a group of migrants in North Texas. Lawyers for those
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migrants said they had been loaded on the buses and
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were at risk of eminent removal to El Savador. In
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their order Friday, the Justices seemed to send the message
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that they met what they said the first time, using
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stronger language. They emphasized the importance of courts ensuring a
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fair or due process before deportation, and twice alluded to
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the Trump's administration of handling kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland
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man wrongly deported and now imprisoned in El Savador, despite
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a twenty nineteen court order borring such action. According to
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the order from a majority of justice, it read, a
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detainee must have sufficient time and information to reasonably be
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able to contact council file a petition and pursue appropriate relief.
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The roughly twenty four hours notice provided to the detainees
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in northern Texas devoid of information about how to exercise
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due process rights to contest that to removal surely does
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not pass muster. The Order of States. Conservative Justices Samuel A.
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Alito Junior and Clarence Thomas dissented, accusing their colleagues of
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deporting a departing from the Court's usual practice. The Supreme
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Court made it clear it was not addressing the broader
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question about whether Trump officials can legally invoke the wartime
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statute to target alleged members of the trend Duraguagua gang. Instead,
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they sent the case back to the US Court of
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Appeals for the Fifth Circuit for further. We recognize the
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significance of the government's national security interest, as well as
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the necessity that such interest be pursued in a manner
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consistent with the Constitution. According to the unsigned order, presumably
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joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Junior, and Justices
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Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanagh, Amy Coney Barrett, and
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the Court's three liberal justices, Sonya Soda Mayor Elina Kagan
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and Kachanji Brown Jackson. In a concurring statement, Kavanaugh said
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the Supreme Court's injunction simply ensures that judiciary can decide
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whether these Venezuelan detainees may be lawfully removed under the
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Alien Enemies Act before they are in fact removed. Kavanaugh
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said he would prefer to have had the Supreme Court
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take up the underlying legal questions and called for a
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prompt and final resolution of the matter. Lower courts have
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largely rejected the administration's rationale for fast track deportations. Judges
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in Colorado, New York, and Texas have all concluded that
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it was unlawful for Trump to invoke the Alien Enemies
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Act and rejected the administration's declarations that the United States
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is being invaded by the Venezuelan gang to justify its
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use of centuries old act to try to deport migrants
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without a hearing. The judges have borrowed or temporarily paused
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such deportations in their districts. A federal judge in Pennsylvania
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has allowed the administration to invoke the wartime law, but
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described the administration's process for carrying out those renewals as
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constitutionally deft, efficient, and order the government to give targeted
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migrants at least twenty one day's notice and opportunity to
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challenge their removals. The White House has defended Trump's use
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of the statute, which has been used three times previously
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during the War of eighteen twelve, World War One, and
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World War II. It allows the president to skip the
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usual immigration court process to detain and deport anyone aged
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fourteen order from a hostile nation or government when there
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is a declared war with such a nation, or when
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a foreign nation threatens invasion or predatory incursion against the
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United States. The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing
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some of the targeted migrants, had told the justices that
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Trump administration's notice of deportation did not comply with the
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initial April seventh Supreme Court order because it is written
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in English, not Spanish, and gave the detainees just twenty
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four hours to appeal. The organization asked the court to
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ensure at least thirty days notice and provide clear direction
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to lower courts about how to handle these cases. A
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court filing on April twenty third showed that the government
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is giving migrants twelve hours to indicate if they want
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to challenge their deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, an
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amount of time, their lawyer said, falls short of the
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meaningful opportunity the Supreme Court initially outlined. In response to
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the Court's order Friday, attorney Lee Gerland of the ACLU said,
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in this statement, the Supreme Court properly put a hold
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on the extraordinary use of wartime authority until it could
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fully consider the matter. This will mean for now that
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no more individuals will be whisked away to a brutal
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foreign prison, perhaps for the rest of their lives. The
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eight page order provided new insights into the information that
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justices had when they initially blocked the deportations in Northern
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Texas just before one am on Saturday, April nineteenth. It
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also showed how the administration's approached to the separate immigration
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case involving Abrego Garcia seems to have shaped the view
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of at least some justices of the administration's broader deportation efforts.
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In April, the Supreme Court directed Trump officials to take
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steps to return Abrego Garcia, whose attorneys say he is
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at risk of harm or death in Alsavado's terrorism confinement Center,
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but Trump officials have said publicly that he is not
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coming back to the United States. Administration lawyers have repeated
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it resisted directives from a lower court judge in Maryland
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and invoked the state's secrets privilege to withhold information about
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Brago Garcia's possible return. The administration's assertions in that case
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factored into the majority's order on Friday, which said that
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justices had learned after their initial order that the government
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was apparently poised to eminently carry out deportations in Northern
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Texas and that the migrants have been transported to an airport.
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Had the detainees been removed from the United States to
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the custody of a foreign sovereign on April the nineteenth,
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the government may have argued, as it previously argued, that
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no US court had jurisdiction to order relief. The order
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states with a reference to Abrego Garcia's case, noting late
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that the government also has represented elsewhere that it is
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able people to provide for the return of an individual
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deported in era to a prison in El Salvadore. While
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Trump officials are blocked from fast tracking deportations in Northern Texas.
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The justices said that Trump administration could continue to deport
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alleged gang members using other immigration laws. In response, Trump
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complained in social media posts that the alternative legal routes
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are too lengthy and expensive and said the Supreme Court
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is not allowing me to do what I was elected
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to do. Our second article, GOP hardline is block Trump's
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massive tax and immigration package. The vote is as significant
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but not fatal set back to the legislation that President
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Donald Trump hopes will define his second term. And there
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are two hosts. Budget Committee members Chairman Jody Arrington left
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and Representative Chip Roy, a leading physical hawk ahead of
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recent hearing at the US Capitol in Washington, and Joey
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Arrington has his hand on mister Roy's shoulder. Both have
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on suits, Roy with a red tie and Arrington with
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a blue tie. And Roy is seated at his desk
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with a cup in front of him and Arrington is
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holding a hearing package and a coffee cup in his
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hand with a phone. By Jacob bou Gage and Marianna Sophomo,
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Republican budget hardliners rebelled Friday to block President Donald Trump's
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massi attacks and immigration package over concerns the legislation does
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not impose deep enough spending cuts, physical halts on the
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House Budget Committee joined Democrats to sink a procedural vote
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that would have advanced the measure, formally called the One
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Big Beautiful Bill Act, to the House floor, where Speaker
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Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, hope to push it through
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the chamber next week. The vote is a rebuke of
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the Speaker and Trump, who earlier Friday insisted on social
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media that the grand standers against the legislation again in
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capitals except one word must unite had the bee one
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Big Beautiful Bill, stop talking and get it done, end
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of all caps. The vote is a significant but not
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fatal set back to the legislation that Trump hopes will
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define his second term. The bill includes trillions of dollars
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in tax cuts, adds taxes on tips, overtime wages, and
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auto loan interest, which was one of Trump's campaign promises,
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and designates hundreds of billions of dollars of spending on
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the administration's immigration crackdown and defense priorities. But the measure
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would add more than two point five trillion to the
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thirty six point two trillion dollar national debt and amount
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that the hardline conservatives found intolerable. The bill falls profoundly short.
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It does not do what we say it does with
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respect to deficits, Representative Chip Roy, Republican of Texas said
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during the meeting, adding, the fact of the matter is,
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with respect to spending, what we're dealing with here on
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tax cuts and spending is a massive front loaded deficit increase.
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That's the truth. Joined in opposition to the bill, the
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fellow committee members Ralph Norman, Republican of South Carolina, Andrew Clyde,
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Republican of Georgia, Dash Breechen, Republican of Oklahoma, all members
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of the ultra conservative post Freedom Caucus. In a statement,
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the Freedom Caucus said the four lawmakers continue to work
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in good faith to enact the President's Big Beautiful Bill
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and pledged to continuing negotiations through the weekend. Were Representative
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Lloyd Smucker, Republican of Pennsylvania, originally voted in favor of
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the bill, but changed his vote to a no, which
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allows Republicans to call up the measure again in the committee.
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Budget Committee Chairman Jody Arrington, Republican of Texas, originally told
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lawmakers that the panel would reconvene Monday after spending the
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weekend at the bargaining table, adding that your weekends are
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for you and your family. According to a person in
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the committee room, who, like others in this article, spoke
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on the condition of anonymity to share the private conversation,
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two other people familiar with the negotiation said Johnson prefers
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that the Budget Committee reconvene as early as Sunday evening
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if a deal is struck with the holdouts, he still
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hopes to get the legislative packaged through the host a
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Memorial Day weekend. Persistent disagreements between the furthest right flank,
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and moderates have plagued Host Republicans' budget negotiations since the
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last Congress. Physical Hawks, many of whom are members of
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the Freedom Caucus, are demanding two trillion in federal spending cuts,
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the bulk of which would come from Medicaid, and snap
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the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance program formerly known as food stain
21:00
Amps as written in the bill, though those cuts would
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not take effect for several years, and the policies included
21:08
car votes that would permit federal and state policymakers to
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slim down the cuts or opt out of them entirely. Moderates,
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many of whom represent swing districts that helped Host Republicans
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retain the majority last year, are more protective of those benefits.
21:27
Striking a compromise between the factions will be difficult, especially
21:32
on a policy area that routinely derailed funding fights during
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the last Congress. Those gold clashes contributed to the eventual
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removal of Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California as Host Speaker,
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and the same tensions could determine Johnson's fate in the job. Johnson, Arrington,
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and Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Republican of Louisiana worked overnight
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Thursday into Friday to make changes to the legislation to
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attempt to play kate the committee's ho votes, including moving
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up the timeline for work requirements to take effect. Errington
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on Friday morning even delayed for functory committee votes until
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the end of the meeting to give negotiators about an
22:17
hour more to hasher to deal. But the sides were
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unable to reach an agreement, and the anti policy change
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that would increase spending cuts could cost Johnson votes from
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the more moderate parts of his conference. Don't move the
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goal post. If you move the goal post, that would
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be varied, imaging, because we've all worked in good faith
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to make this happen, said Representative Don Bacon, Republican, who
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represents the Nebraska Spring Swing District, adding I didn't like
22:53
everything that's put in. I don't expect them to like
22:56
everything that's being put in. So this is how it works.
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Blue State Republicans have also demanded a higher cap on
23:04
the State and Local Tax Deduction, also known as SALT,
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an expensive new tax cut that is controversial among conservatives,
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and a weary of adding spending reductions on safety net programs.
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We're not closer. Still a lot of specifics that need
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to be hashed out, said Representative Nick Lalotta, Republican of
23:28
New York, a key negotiator on SALT. Johnson and his
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teams had hoped to push the legislation through the Budget
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Committee on Friday, then through the Rules Committee on Monday.
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The Rules Committee is where lawmakers could offer amendments to
23:46
satisfy GOP holdots. The Speaker must wrangle all but two
23:51
Republicans to approve the package, assuming all lovemakers are present
23:56
to vote. Discreet the legislation through the Republicans narrow Host majority.
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Much Republicans across the ideological spectrum are worried about what
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could happen to their bill when it reaches the Senate.
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Leaders there have already suggested they are interested in dramatic
24:14
policy changes to the Host bill. Under many of the
24:18
proposals most important to the Host may not survive the
24:22
Upper Chamber of strict rules that govern the budget process.
24:27
There are dozens of members who they expressed concern to
24:31
our leadership, and those members are insisting that either the
24:35
Senate go first, or the Senate and the President bless
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whatever the bill that we're ultimately asked to vote on.
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La Lota said, we don't want to have a scenario
24:47
where the Host votes on something that ultimately gets trashed
24:52
in the Senate or by the President. We should make
24:55
every effort possible to vote on something only if it's
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real and next article, Trump is taking credit for Middle
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East deals that predate his presidency. Trump has been escalating
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pressure on leaders in the Middle East to up their
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investment in the United States. By kat Zerzuski, Abigail Houslenner,
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and Susanna George, the White House this week labeled President
25:30
Donald Trump the deal maker in Chief, claiming he has
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secured more than two trillion dollars in investment agreements during
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his tour through oil rich Middle East monarchies as Air
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Force one touchdown in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United
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Arab Emirates. The White House released daily list of dozens
25:53
of deals it said Trump had secured during his visits,
25:58
but at least half a dozen of the contracts were
26:01
announced before Trump even took office in January, according to
26:05
a Washington Post review of the announcements. In Doha, the
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administration announced eight point five billion dollars in projects involving
26:15
the Texas energy company McDermott, including one focused on Guitar's
26:21
liquefied natural gas expansion, but the company previously announced contracts
26:27
for that initiative during Joe Biden's presidency in twenty twenty
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three and twenty twenty four. When Trump was in Abu
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Dhabi on Thursday, the White House announced two hundred billion
26:38
dollars in new commercial deals with the UAE. Much of
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the corporate funding came from a closed computing deal between
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Amazon and the UAE state owned Telemuications company. E ampisand
26:54
which the White House claimed it would contribute one hundred
26:58
and eighty one billion dollars for the local economy by
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twenty thirty three. But Amazon had already announced that contract
27:06
in October, and the company had committed only about one
27:09
billion dollars over six years. The one hundred and eighty
27:13
one billion dollar estimate came from an Amazon sponsored study,
27:18
and it was a broad calculation of how much the
27:20
UAE could increase its gross domestic product if it start
27:25
used more cloud services. The math behind the White House's
27:30
claimed that Trump secured trillions on this trip is fuzzy.
27:35
Even including the contracts that predate his presidency, the sum
27:39
of the deals is under one trillion, But the White
27:43
House is also counting announcements that it made months before
27:47
the trip, including a vague plan that the UAE said
27:50
it would result in one point four trillion in investment
27:54
in the United States over the next decade. The UAE
27:58
and the White House previously announced that deal in March.
28:02
The White House did not explain why its announcements included
28:06
deals that pre date Trump's presidency. The Washington Post is
28:12
trying and failing to discredit trillions of dollars in good
28:16
deals secured by President Trump on his Middle East trip,
28:20
said Whitehouse folkswoman Anna Kelly. She added that the deals
28:25
included reaffirmed investments from companies that had agreements in the
28:30
region before Trump's presidency, including McDermott and the Technology Company
28:35
Persons Michael maclby, mcdermot's International's president and CEO said that
28:42
its partnerships and Qatar were developed over decades and that
28:46
the company remains committed to support Katar's energy development's plans
28:52
for decades to come. Amazon did not comment, but on Friday,
28:57
the company announced a new offering to accelerate adoption in
29:01
the UAE. He did not announce any additional funds beyond
29:06
the one billion dollars in announced last year. In parenthesis,
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Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post. Trump has
29:18
been escalating pressures on leaders in the Middle East to
29:22
up their investments in the US, and his Arab counterparts
29:26
in the Persian Gulf appear willing to partake in the
29:29
optics of splashy spending as they seek to firm up
29:33
their relationships with a president known for his penchant for pageantry.
29:38
But economists and people familiar with the coffers of the
29:41
Soviet government particularly question whether the countries can live up
29:46
to these bold promises even over the course of a decade.
29:51
It's sort of like the region's tying up big bow
29:54
around itself, said Karen Young, a senior fellow at the
29:59
Middle East End Institute. It's a big box, but maybe
30:04
it's a smaller present inside. Officials and Saudi Arabia and
30:10
the UAE included deals that predated Trump's presidency in their
30:15
announcements to inflate the investment figures. According to an official, who,
30:20
like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail
30:24
private discussions. One businessman with close ties to Saudi Arabia
30:29
described the creative math underway and RHEI. Ahead of Trump's visit,
30:34
the Saudi Royal Court contacted all the top businessmen in
30:39
the golf nation and they were asked, how much have
30:43
you invested in the United States in the last two years?
30:47
How much have you put in the United States in
30:49
any kind of investment real estate, stocks, bonds. The businessman said,
30:56
speaking on the condition of an amniminity is so as
30:59
not to jefferdis those close ties. The implication, he added,
31:03
was that the Saudi government was seeking to assemble a
31:06
set of numbers that could be included in the total
31:09
investments announced during Trump's visit. Trump on Tuesday announced that
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the Sordi government would invest six hundred billion in the
31:19
United States, while still repeatedly teasing that the country should
31:24
invest up to one trillion, but the deals that the
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White House announced in the country so far total less
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than three hundred billion. Some of the projects in that
31:35
tally were previously announced, including some of the plans to
31:38
improve infrastructure, such as King Solomon International Airport. One of
31:43
the US companies, Jacobs, had announced it was elected for
31:47
the airport project in August. The Trump administration has also
31:52
taken a broad view of what it counts as a
31:54
foreign investment, including military purchases in its investment estimates. Two
32:02
of the arms deals its announced appeared to predate the
32:05
Trump administration. The Biden administration in twenty twenty two notified
32:11
Congress of its intention to sell Guitar, a one billion
32:16
fixed sight low slow Small Unmanned Aerial System Integrated Defeat
32:22
System FSLIDS built by Raython to counter undermanned aircraft. On Wednesday,
32:31
the White House announced that Raython had secured a one
32:35
billion dollar agreement for Guitar's acquisition of that same system.
32:42
Raytheon spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
32:49
Also on Wednesday, the White House announced a two billion
32:52
dollar General adam Atomics deal to drone selldromes to Guitar.
33:00
That sale has been in the work for years, according
33:03
to a Congressional aid, and the notification was sent to
33:07
Congress in March. The White House said in additional, thirty
33:11
eight billion dollars represented potential investments that were outlined in
33:16
a statement of intent with Katar. A lot of it
33:21
is going to be aspirational. Hassain Ivish, a Senior Resident
33:26
Fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, said
33:30
that the big numbers rolled at in riad, Vilha and Abudabi,
33:35
a lot of it is going to be promised and
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not delivered on. Following the investments announs during the Trump visit,
33:42
officials in the Origin acknowledged that Saudi Arabia doesn't have
33:47
enough cash on a hand to fund everything that was promised,
33:51
said an individual with knowledge of the business community in
33:54
Saudi Arabia. Some are questioning if he could even fund half.
34:00
The ability of the Kingdom to come up with the
34:03
cash could depend a lot on how quickly the investments
34:06
are rolled out, and if it decides to borrow money
34:10
that would then be allocated for the US investments, the
34:14
person said. Saudi Arabia's budget has been strapped by stubbornly
34:20
moderate oil prices and colossal domestic spending tens of billions
34:26
of dollars for ambitious projects like a desert megopolis service
34:31
by robots and a cubescaped shaped skyscraper. In some cases,
34:38
the kingdom has been forced to scale back elements amidst
34:42
larger projects. There's a growing list of demands in terms
34:47
of spending an investment relative to a shrinking pot of
34:50
oil money that's going to be coming in this year,
34:54
said Tim Callan, a visiting fellow at Arabs Gulf States Institute.
35:00
Trump's at times appeared to acknowledge the competing demands confronting
35:04
the Saudi government. He said at a conference in February
35:09
that he has told Arab leaders to put your country first,
35:14
whether it's Saudi Arabia, whether it's something else. You're going
35:18
to put your country first. But we're going to have
35:21
plenty leftover to help others too, plenty left over to
35:25
help others. Also, he said, as long as you invest
35:29
in America, build in America, and high in America, that
35:32
pins that I'm fighting for you. Experts studying the Middle
35:37
East said, the White House is rhetoric on this trip,
35:40
echoed Trump's proclamations in twenty seventeen. Trump has claimed that
35:45
during his first presidency, Saudi Arabia agreed to buy four
35:49
hundred and fifty billion dollars in US products, but sales
35:53
on that scale did not materialize. According to an analyst
35:58
that Talan conducted during his twenty seventeen trip to the Kingdom,
36:04
Trump compiled a list of real deals that he has struck,
36:09
aspirational deals that may or may not have been struck,
36:13
phony deals that won't be struck, and deals struck by
36:16
his democratic credecessor that will be credited to himself. And
36:21
he comes up with a gigantic number close to a trillion.
36:24
Ibish said, but this time he's doing it three different times.
36:32
Here is the article how Doja's grand plan to remake
36:37
Social Security is backfiring. The agency is abandoning an inettitiative
36:45
aimed at preventing fraud. The latest example of a failed
36:50
effort by Elon Musk's disruptive cost cutting team Bahannah Nattisson,
36:57
Liserine and Merrill Cornfield US DOEZ Service arrived at the
37:04
Social Security Administration this year, determined to slash staff and
37:09
rooted out what it claimed was widespread fraud and raceful spending.
37:14
A mission Elon Musk's cost cutting team has pursued across
37:19
the government, but as of this week, many of the
37:22
major changes DOZE pushed at Social Security have been abandoned
37:28
or are being reversed after proving ineffective, while others are
37:34
yielding unintended consequences and badly damaging customer service and satisfaction.
37:41
The problems come as the agency struggles to cope with
37:46
a record surge of hundreds of thousands of retirement claims
37:50
in recent months. DOEGE, which stands for Department of Government
37:57
Efficiency but is not a HABINET level agency, had to
38:02
counsel a plan to cut phone service for retirement and
38:06
disability claims after drawing outrage from lawmakers, seniors, and advocates.
38:13
Staff reductions and reassignments led by those are slowing the
38:17
pace of claims processing as field offices lose long time
38:22
staff and gain a smaller number of inexperienced replacements. Dose
38:31
driven changes to the agency's website are causing crashes almost
38:35
every day, and phone customers complain about dropped calls and
38:40
long wait times. A doze imposed spending freeze is leading
38:46
to shortages of basic office supplies, from printer cartridges to
38:51
the phone headset. Staff need to do their jobs, and
38:56
on Friday, Social Security leaders told employees ease that the
39:00
agency was ending a security check developed at Dozia's request
39:05
that was mid to rooder allegedly fraudulent claims filed over
39:09
the phone. According to three employees familiar with the situation
39:13
and an email obtained by The Washington Post, but the measure,
39:18
which involved placing a three day hold on all phone
39:21
call claims as other staffers checked into the caller's background,
39:26
had only identified a couple of potential fraud places while
39:30
causing significant delays in claims processing, two employees said. Kathleen Romik,
39:38
a former Social Security official who is now at the
39:41
left leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said there
39:45
were already safeguards in place to detect fraud through the
39:49
agency's phone service. Those efforts have only delayed claims processing, and,
39:55
like most of the team's attempts to reshape Social Security,
40:00
placed serious distress on the agency, She said, so much
40:05
of this is self inflicted wounds. Romig said this account
40:12
of turmoil within the Social Security Administration is based on
40:18
interviews with eight current informer employees, most of whom spoke
40:23
on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized
40:27
to discuss private deliberations. The Post also reviewed more than
40:32
a dozen pages of internal agency records and communications. Some
40:39
elements of the latest disarray at Social Security, including the
40:43
decision to end DOJ's ineffective phone fraud check and the
40:48
agency's request that it employees work harder to process or
40:53
process the building backlog of claims, were earlier reported by
40:57
next Gov and Tough Post. Social Security is feeling an
41:02
unpreceded number of retirement claims, with found one hundred and
41:06
seventy five thousand pending, including four hundred and thirty thousand
41:10
that have arrived in the last sixty days. According to
41:14
an email sent to staff this week and reviewed by
41:17
The Post, Stephen Evangelista, the agency's Deputy Commissioner for Operations
41:23
wrote in the email that employees must work ten percent
41:27
harder in a sprint through the end of May to
41:31
address this growing backlog. Calls to the agency's processing centers
41:37
are also spiking from seniors who complained that the main
41:41
one Dash eight hundred hotline is going unanswered and to
41:46
fear their checks will stop because of the Trumpets administration's
41:50
changes to Social Security. Employees said Social Security is poorly
41:55
positioned to handle the influx. According to several staffers as
42:00
ellis records obtained by the Post, thousands of employees have
42:04
taken the Trump administration's early resignation offer or its early
42:10
retirement offer, depleting the workforce and leaving some officers wholly
42:16
bereft of staff. Emails showed a doze led moved to
42:20
slash staffing levels, spurred many senior administrators scared of getting fired,
42:26
to accept reassignment to lower level field office positions, slowing
42:31
claims processing further as those employees are trained. According to
42:36
employees and records, the tumult comes as Frank Vicignano finishes
42:46
his first week as Social Security Senate confirmed commissioner. After
42:51
getting a chance to see agency operations up front, Vincignano
42:56
has grown alarmed by the drastic downsizing ordered by Dose
43:00
and caread by mid level employee Leland Duddeck, who led
43:05
the agency in an acting role for four months. According
43:08
to one current senior official and one former senior official
43:12
brief on Missignano's thinking, Visnano is coming to dislike those
43:18
in hopes to minimize the team's influence, the official said.
43:23
Another official, Habits said Missignano wants to partner with Dooze.
43:28
Asked about the worsening problems at Social Security, White House
43:32
spokeswoman Liz Houston praised those activities at the agency. DOGE
43:38
has played a critical role in improving Social Security Administration,
43:43
from modernizing its technology infrastructure to enhancing efforts to identify waste, fraud,
43:49
and abuse, she said in a statement, adding this important
43:54
work will continue to ensure the federal government is properly
43:58
serving the American timexpayers. They knew there was no fraud.
44:06
Those staffers came to Social Security vowing to end fraudulent
44:10
claims filed by scammers and grifters, and convinced that much
44:14
of that activity were perpetuated over the phone. The Post
44:18
previously reported career staff attempted to explain that wasn't true,
44:23
but to no avail. According to three current and former
44:27
employees familiar with the matter, those proposed ending phone service
44:31
for retirement and disability claims then narrowed his proposal after
44:36
backlash from old reclaimed recipients, advocates and lawmakers then abandoned
44:43
the idea. Staff on the IT side developed a solution
44:48
they hoped to pacify those, a three day hold on
44:51
phone calls to allow extra checking for fraud. The employee said.
44:56
Everyone from rank and foul career staff up to dubit
45:00
knew the phone fraud check was not needed, the employee said,
45:04
but they did it anyway. People lacked the fortitude to
45:08
tell those there was no fraud because they were afraid
45:11
to lose their jobs. They knew there was no fraud,
45:16
one former high ranking official said, referring specifically to claims
45:21
files by telephone. The three day check went into place
45:25
late last month. It was modeled on a system already
45:28
used to verify Internet claims. One employee familiar with the
45:32
matter said when claims came in through Social Security website,
45:37
they often sit for a few days in the database
45:39
before staff on the operation side are able to start
45:42
working on them. Other staff elsewhere in the agency used
45:46
that dead time to imply special checks for fraud. The
45:50
employee said, by the time operations staff can pick up
45:54
the claims, the fraud checks are completed and everything is
45:58
ready to go. But applying that same system to phone
46:03
calls led to trouble. Employees said operations staff taking call
46:07
from seniors normally processed the claims as they happened, finishing
46:12
up while still on the phone. Instead, under the new system,
46:17
staff had to take down callers information before transferring claims
46:21
to another part of the agency where they can be
46:23
reviewed for signs of fraud. After waiting three days, staff
46:27
were supposed to pick back up their unfinished claims. It
46:31
never really worked. Mostly what it accomplished was annoying field
46:36
staff and delaying claims processing. Employees said, we are already overwhelmed.
46:43
It added a needless task to our plate, and claims
46:47
were starting to get lost, said one field Alfer's employee
46:51
who dealt with the system, and it turned up almost
46:54
no examples of potential fraud. Employees said the agency already
46:59
has reliable methods for identifying fraud on the phone, including
47:04
the fact that staff answering the phone calls received special
47:08
training to catch fraudsters, they said. In recent days, seeing
47:13
that Musk was stepping back from government work to focus
47:17
on his struggling with card company Tesla and suspecting that
47:20
Doji's influence might be winning it, staff at the agency
47:25
saw on opening, they drafted a memo for Bessangno's review
47:31
calling for an end of the three day fraud check,
47:35
according to his senior official briefed on the matter. Next
47:39
Gov first reported on the existence of the memo, which
47:42
said the system had so far only turned up two
47:45
cases of possible fraud at one hundred and ten thousand
47:51
calls that were reviewed. On Thursday, the agency sent a
47:55
message to field officers declaring that, effective Saturday, claims taken
48:01
over the phone no longer be subject to a three
48:03
day hold prior to judication, according to a copy obtained
48:09
by the Post, Even as the doge led fraud check
48:13
at falls flat, Social Security appears to be testing another
48:17
novel change to its phone service. Jennifer Verdick, of Philadelphia
48:23
based attorney representing clients seeking disability benefits, said that in
48:28
the past week, a new phone line operated by an
48:31
artificial intelligence system has complicated her efforts to get help
48:35
for her clients. In one case, she and her parallegle
48:40
had to call repeatedly before they were connected with the
48:43
human to discuss a client who never got their disability
48:47
checked last month. Many times, when you say agent, it
48:53
won't put you through to the whole line. It'll act
48:56
like it didn't hear what you said. Verdict said, this
49:00
is causing some confusion. People are getting frustrated and trying
49:05
to tell it what they mean instead of being effective
49:08
at all. It's been sid fitting a weird Social Security knowledge.
49:13
When a Post reporter called on the phone line Friday afternoon,
49:17
it takes eight attempts to get transferred to an agent.
49:21
The aabach asked the reporter several times to end the
49:24
call and gave unrelated information about a cost of living adjustment,
49:29
Medicare part bees premium and benefits available to people after
49:33
retirement age. Social Security has said it plans to rolate
49:38
the automation to all field offices by this summer, and
49:42
it is already in use in more than three hundred
49:44
and fifty field offices in the Safe East and Northeast
49:48
as of the end of April. A spokesperson said the
49:52
agency is constantly improving the feature, which can be affected
49:59
by many factors in including background noise, quality of the connection,
50:03
and clarity of speech. Claim surge, furniture breaks, vendors go unpaid.
50:11
The surgeon claims that Social Security bases goes beyond anything
50:16
the agency has seen. In his memo the Field office
50:20
this week, Evangelista wrote that this year we've received more
50:25
retirement claims than in any prior year. Reasons for the surge,
50:30
Evangelista wrote, include baby boomers turning sixty five years old,
50:35
a new law signed in January that increased Social Security
50:39
retirement benefits for state and local government employees, and a
50:43
recent policy change granting higher benefits to surviving species. But
50:49
a senior official at the agency noted there is another
50:52
key reason people thinking that SSA is going to collapse
50:58
because of what's going on in the government, especially with
51:03
those led overhauls and cuts. Another staffer who works in
51:07
the processing SENNA said older men and women are calling
51:10
in at a rate they've never seen, complaining then no
51:13
one picks up the main one eight hundred hotline. The
51:17
callers often tell employees they are worried their checks will
51:21
stop and ask what's going on, the employee said. The
51:26
Social Securities spokesperson denied that the processing SENNA has seen
51:31
an unusual spike in calls and claimed that the average
51:35
time it takes to answer calls to the main hotline
51:37
has decreased. That measure does not occur for dropped calls
51:42
and busy signals as calls flood in. Staff are fleeing.
51:46
Since Friday, Dudduck has overseen the elimination of seven thousand
51:51
jobs through early retirements by its resignations and firings. He
51:57
told the remaining workforce of about fifty eight thousand last
52:01
month that he hoped such cuts would be enough for
52:04
those disagreed, as the Post has previously reported and drafted
52:09
plans to slash thousands more staff. Fearing firings, employees left
52:17
the chance to leave under a second round resignation offer
52:21
unveiled last month, with twenty five hundred taking the BAYO,
52:26
costing field officers about ten percent of their staff. It
52:30
departments were especially hard hit, and some officers were wiped
52:35
out completely, including the security division for the Office of
52:39
Hearings Operations. According to an email obtained by the Post,
52:44
many employees and management roles accepted reassignment to lower level
52:49
field office roles because they were warned they would lose
52:52
their jobs if they didn't take the demotion. According to
52:56
employees and emails obtained by the Post, those staffers now
53:01
face months of retraining as they learned to process claims.
53:06
Some arriving in field officers are finding a dire situation.
53:11
No more paper, no more printers, and no ability to
53:14
shred documents. Pay Phone bills are higher foreign language interpreters,
53:19
according to interviews with half a dozen staffers spread across
53:23
the country. That's because those reduce federal spending cards to
53:28
one dollar and declare that one of less than a
53:32
dozen people must sign off on purchases for all thirteen
53:37
hundred field officers, including a few able to replenish basic
53:41
office supplies or paper other needs. Some vendors are refusing
53:47
service until they're paid for pass services provided. One staffer said,
53:52
things break and there's no money to replace furniture. Frustrated
53:57
employees have begun paying out of their own pockets for
54:00
everything from penns too in one Northeastern office, a refrigerator.
54:06
We're going to purchase a new fridge since the funds
54:09
that would normally be available facilities to provide us with
54:13
one are still frozen. Read an email sent in late
54:16
April and obtained by the Post before we do, I
54:21
would like to see if anyone else is interested in
54:24
contributing in their last front page article, which I won't
54:29
be able to finish. An isolated, angry Fetterman is yet
54:33
another challenge for Democrats. Senator John Fetterman increasingly goes it alone,
54:40
wearing some fellow Democrats as they struggle to push back
54:43
against Trump and retake the majority bi Liz Goodwin and
54:48
Theodoric mail. In June twenty twenty three, Senator Patty Murray,
54:53
Democrat of Washington, posted a video of her greeting her
54:57
new neighbor on the first floor of Russell's office building,
55:01
John Fetterman, with a welcome wagon of Apple's Ginger beer
55:05
and other Washington state failed Fetterman told Murray it was
55:10
an ama to be her neighbor and gifted her a
55:13
hoodie and a hat emblazoned with the word yinzer, a
55:16
slang term for someone from Pittsburgh. Can't wait to see
55:21
you more and more, the Democrat said to his colleague recently,
55:26
the two senators had a very different interaction. In late January,
55:30
Fetterman angrily confronted Murray off the Senate floor, accusing her
55:35
of sabotaging him by releasing a proposed resolution condemning President
55:40
Donald Trump's pardon of January six rioters without his knowledge.
55:44
According to two people with knowledge of the incident who
55:48
spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose private discussions,
55:53
every Senate Democrat accept Fetterman backed the measure, and Fetterman
55:57
accused Murray of leaving him in in Tensionally, the confrontation
56:02
could not have happened between two more different senators. Murray,
56:07
a soft spoken and widely respected Senate veteran, stands well
56:11
under a foot shorter than the six foot eight freshmen
56:14
in her signature tennis shoes. Murray retorted that her staff
56:19
had reached out to Fetterman's repeatedly before releasing the measure.
56:23
Fredaman's office declined to respond to a list of written
56:26
questions about this and other incidents described in the article.
56:30
Asked about what happened, Murray said in his statement, she's
56:34
not looking back and is ready to work with Fetterman
56:37
to help solve problems. Fretterman's run in with Murray is
56:41
just one example of his isolation from his fellow Democrats.
56:45
According to more than a dozen current and former lawmakers
56:49
and staff from which the information in this article is drawn,
56:53
his relationship with the Democratic Party has become increasingly strained,
56:57
while he's faced protests by liberal activist and watched staffers flee.
57:03
Some Democrats have been mystified at what they see as
57:07
his stand office behavior, saying he blows off meeting request,
57:11
spurns senator's weekly lunches, and has left the caucus's private
57:15
group Chat. Republicans see an opening and are openly courting
57:20
Fetterman to join their fifty seat fifty three seat majority,
57:24
even though the senator from Pennsylvania has repeatedly said he
57:29
would never join the GOP. Senator David McCormick, Republican of Pennsylvania,
57:34
and other Senate Republicans publicly defended Fetterman this month after
57:40
a report in a New York magazine detailed his erratic behavior.
57:45
Fetterman spent time Monday evening in the Republican cloak room
57:49
off the Senate floor, bonding with some of his friends
57:53
on the other side of the Isle. We're always looking
57:56
to increase the number of our caucus and have enjoyed
57:59
working with him. Senator John Barrasso, Wyoming and the Republican
58:04
Wit said Thursday Tuesday, and we talked regularly. We talked
58:09
last evening. We almost certainly welcome him the result of
58:14
something of a Fetterman problem for Democrats who are struggling
58:17
to keep their caucus together as they seek a strategy
58:21
to push back on Trump and retake the Senate next
58:24
year against tough odds. And with that I closed the
58:29
reading of Today's Washington Post for Saturday, the seventeenth of May.
58:36
I hope all survived the storm last night, have a
58:42
continued good weekend, take care, and be back next Thursday. Bye.