Watch: Senator Markey, Advocates Demand: No Cuts to Social Security
Boston (March 28, 2025) - Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), top Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee on Primary Health and Retirement Security, held a press conference today to discuss how the Trump administration’s ongoing attempts to gut Social Security impact Massachusetts residents. The press conference comes as the Trump administration, including the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), wages an all-out assault on the Social Security Administration (SSA), firing staff, closing SSA field offices, cutting customer experience systems and SSA phone service, and requiring in-person identity checks, among other drastic changes. Senator Markey was joined by Reverend Lorraine Anderson, Betsy Connell of the Massachusetts Councils on Aging, Rosa Bentley of the Massachusetts Senior Action Council, and Camillie Piñeiro and Rich Couture of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).
“For the millions of seniors that rely almost entirely upon Social Security for their income, a missed check means missed meals, medications, or rent payments,” said Senator Markey. “By cutting staff, closing offices, and requiring people to wait in long lines for an in-person identity check, the Trump administration is forcing Social Security recipients to travel long distances and making it more difficult to receive the funds they are entitled to. We will not let Trump and DOGE pillage Americans’ rightfully earned benefits to pay for a tax break for billionaires without a fight.”
“My husband and I chose to live among the people we serve and during that time we were trusting the government to hold onto our money,” said Reverend Lorraine Andersen, Massachusetts resident and retired American Baptist Minister from International Community Church in Allston, Massachusetts. “We cannot afford to have our social security checks to be canceled, reduced or even delayed. If we lose those checks, we will have to go back to work in our eighties. I want to thank Senator Markey and others who are fighting to preserve and protect social security.”
“Today, tomorrow, and every day this year 11,400 people will turn 65, which means that the social security administration needs to be able to have the capacity to serve an additional 4.1 million older adults this year,” said Betsy Connell, Executive Director of Massachusetts Councils on Aging (MCOA). “We are talking about the people that built our homes, our communities, our local businesses, they are our neighbors, our parents, and our grandparents. With so many older adults facing these daily challenges with these hard economic times, rising costs for everything, making it more difficult for them to access their social security benefits is indefensible. Our older adults deserve better.”
“More than one million people in Massachusetts rely on social security with an average monthly income of $3,000 a month. Payment delays of social security quickly become a crisis of missed rent or no groceries,” said Rosa Bentley, Statewide President for Massachusetts Senior Action Council. “There is no widespread fraud in the social security system. The only fraud I see is from Donald Trump and his friends. We will not accept any cuts to our benefits. We will not accept cuts to social security. Together we demand hands off our social security.”
“Social Security is under attack by half hazard pointless new policies that produce only chaos and uncertainty. This new policy exposes seniors to greater threats from scammers that take advantage of their confusion. Social security is the line in the sand. Please help us hold the line and protect the benefits we all have paid for, from the first day of our first job,” said Camillie Piñeiro, President of AFGE Local 1164.
“Social security is a promise our country made to itself to support us at the end of our work lives or when we are unable to work, and that promise is under attack. Folks are waiting a long time to get through and waiting a long time to get any answers because offices are being closed and staff fired,” said Rich Couture, President of AFGE Council 215 and Spokesperson for the AFGE Social Security General Committee. “Every American has paid into this system and are entitled to the benefits promised. These are your benefits. You are entitled to these benefits, and they must be saved.”
In February, Senator Markey led his colleagues in a letter to Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-Wash.) urging them to provide no less than $15.402 billion for the Social Security Administration in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill, allowing for full and timely implementation of the Social Security Fairness Act, while improving customer service. Senator Markey is an original cosponsor of the Social Security Fairness Act, signed into law by President Biden in January 2025. The Social Security Fairness Act repealed the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset, which had reduced benefits for 3.2 million public servants. As a member of the House of Representatives in 1983, Markey was one of a handful of Democrats to vote against the Social Security Reform Act, which created WEP/GPO. Senator Markey is an original cosponsor of the Social Security Expansion Act to protect and expand Social Security benefits.
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