One House Republican in a swing district is now publicly rebuking President Donald Trump's administration after one of his budget cuts directly impacted his constituents.
Acting Social Security Administration (SSA) head Leland Dudek recently announced that he would be not be renewing the lease on the agency's office in White Plains, New York when it comes up on May 31, and that he was rejecting a bipartisan effort by Reps. George Latimer (D-N.Y.) and Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) to keep it open. Dudek attributed the closure to persistent mold issues in the building that the General Services Administration (GSA) had been unable to address.
In a letter to Dudek, both Latimer and Lawler emphasized that the White Plains office was the only one serving residents in the Lower Hudson Valley, and that closing it would make it that much harder for their constituents to be able to attend hearings that will determine their benefits. He tweeted: "Concerns about mold don’t justify abandoning folks in the Lower Hudson Valley."
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"The decision to close the only Social Security Hearing Office in the Hudson Valley is a slap in the face to thousands of my constituents who rely on these services," Lawler stated. "This office handles over 2,000 backlogged cases and conducts hundreds of in-person hearings every year. Telling my constituents that they now have to travel hours to Lower Manhattan, New Haven, the Bronx or Goshen is completely unacceptable."
According to South African centibillionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the lease on the White Plains office is approximately $511,000 per year. And that lease is one of nearly two dozen cancelled for the SSA across multiple states. Similar to Reps. Latimer and Lawler, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) has cautioned against closing the White Plains office, stressing that the building is vital for thousands of New Yorkers who rely on SSA benefits.
"As the only hearing office in the lower Hudson Valley region, it’s closure will negatively impact thousands of constituents who reside in these seven counties," Gillibrand wrote in a February letter. "If SSA does not open an alternative site, beneficiaries will be required to travel between 24 and 135 miles to be serviced by the closest office in New York City, Albany, New Jersey and Connecticut."
Lawler's public stance against one of Trump's budget cuts is particularly noteworthy, given that he recently lauded the administration's efforts to cut out "waste, fraud and abuse" in government agencies during a tele-town hall. The New York Republican didn't specifically talk about DOGE's cuts to the SSA, but he did tell constituents: "There are things they're doing that I think are beneficial. There are other things where I think they're going very fast, and they need to dot their i's and cross their t's before pulling the trigger."
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