Martin O’Malley Approved as Social Security Commissioner

The U.S. Senate confirmed Martin O’Malley, the former governor of Maryland, as the next commissioner of the Social Security Administration by a vote of 50 to 11 on Monday. O’Malley was nominated in July by President Joe Biden.

O’Malley takes over for Acting Commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi, who has been serving in the position since July 2021 after initially being appointed as deputy commissioner. O’Malley was mayor of Baltimore from 1999 to 2007 and governor of Maryland from 2007 to 2015.

The Senate Committee on Finance previously held a confirmation hearing for O’Malley in November, during which Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, and Ranking Member Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, emphasized administrative issues at the agency.

During the hearings, Crapo urged O’Malley to “make sure the trains run on time” and to work to fix backlogs and wait times at administration call centers.

According to Crapo, it takes the SSA seven months, on average, for an initial disability eligibility determination, and another seven months after that to get a re-determination on appeal. If the appellant asks for a hearing, that takes another 15 months on average. This means someone who is wrongfully denied disability benefits would wait an average of about 2 1/2 years to have that issue remedied, meaning longer waits are possible.

Crapo also highlighted issues of overpayments at the SSA, which can lead to clawbacks of excessive benefits. Crapo said that in 2021, the SSA paid $2.49 billion in retirement benefits and $4.91 billion in disability payments to which beneficiaries were not entitled, sometimes leading to large clawbacks after payments had already been made.

Wyden also emphasized low employee morale and retention at the SSA, as well as a lack of funding, as key issues. He explained that the SSA’s budget has been declining while the number of people it serves has been increasing.

O’Malley agreed with the critiques, saying that the SSA was facing a “customer service crisis.” He said the SSA is facing 50% more beneficiaries as compared with 1995, but with the same level of staffing, and added that average wait times at call centers are 37 minutes.

Though O’Malley cannot increase the SSA’s budget, he argued that his experience as mayor of Baltimore, as governor of Maryland and in other roles makes him well-suited to find greater efficiencies at the SSA through the use of technology and better organization.

The previous commissioner was businessman Andrew Saul, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump and fired by Biden in July 2021 after refusing to step down.