“Let’s call this what it is — a backdoor cut to Social Security benefits,” U.S. Congresswoman Judy Chu declared Tuesday morning outside the Social Security Administration office in Pasadena, flanked by a small but resolute crowd of advocates, retirees, and former Social Security employees.
“When someone can’t reach Social Security to get their monthly payment, that’s a cut. A delayed payment is a benefit cut,” she said.
Chu spoke forcefully against a proposed $4.5 trillion tax cut backed by President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, which she warned could gut essential programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
The cut, she said, would result in staffing reductions and office closures across the Social Security Administration (SSA), crippling a system relied upon by over 110,000 residents in her district alone — including seniors, widows, and people with disabilities.
“They are taking a wrecking ball to the Social Security Administration,” Chu said, noting that one in eight SSA workers has already been laid off, and 47 field offices have shuttered nationwide. “This is the lowest staffing level in 50 years. People are calling and waiting on hold for hours, then just giving up.”
Chu also sounded the alarm on what she called dangerous misinformation and privacy breaches.
“Trump gave Elon Musk access to your Social Security data — your number, your banking info, your private information,” she said. “These people are out of touch with reality.”
Joining Chu at the press conference were disability advocate Sabrina Epstein, social worker Laura Menges, and retired SSA employee Terry Turrentine, who all shared the on-the-ground consequences of administrative cuts.
“For many people with disabilities like those we serve at Disability Rights California, Social Security benefits are a lifeline,” Epstein said. “Cash benefits from SSI and SSDI provide needed funds for housing and food for people who cannot work due to disability.”
She described the growing fear in the disability community, particularly among non-English speakers and older adults.
“Closing offices and slashing jobs is another way to cut services,” she said. “Just yesterday, we learned of an elderly Indigenous woman with active cancer who was suddenly cut off from SSDI after more than a decade of fighting to receive it — and now she can’t even get through on the phone to ask why.”
Turrentine, who spent 35 years working for the SSA, said the recent staffing and budget decisions are unlike anything he saw during his career.
“I never thought about who was in the White House — Social Security always ran,” he said. “But now, hearings are taking three years. Claims that used to take 90 days now take over 200. The system is breaking.”
Turrentine emphasized the human cost. “I’ve paid into this since I was 15. I’m 64. That’s my money. And I deserve it.”
As the press conference closed, Chu vowed to keep fighting, citing her introduction of the “Keeping Our Field Offices Open Act” and continued support for the “Social Security 2100 Act,” which would require the ultra-wealthy to contribute to Social Security year-round, and protect Social Security through the end of this century.
“We are not just here to defend Social Security,” Chu said. “We’re here to expand it — and we won’t stop until we do.”
Asked what the average American might do to prevent the ongoing cuts and downsizing of the Federal Government, Chu said, “Speak out. Protest. One voice becomes ten, and ten becomes a hundred, and a hundred becomes a thousand, and a thousand becomes a million.”
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