November 02, 2023
Retirees Urge Senate to Confirm O’Malley as SSA Commissioner
Statement by Richard Fiesta, Executive Director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, in support of Governor Martin O’Malley’s nomination for Commissioner of the Social Security Administration:
“Sixty-six million Americans – one out of every five households – relies on the guaranteed Social Security benefits they earned over a lifetime of work. Over the years polls have consistently shown that Americans strongly support Social Security across party and demographic lines.
“The Alliance believes that former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley is an exceptional nominee to serve as Commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA) at a critical time in its history.
“No federal agency touches as many American families as the Social Security Administration. Its staff makes sure that millions of retirees, survivors, and people with disabilities receive their benefits, supports people who qualify for SSI, and gets eligible Americans enrolled in Medicare.
“With 10,000 Americans turning 65 every day, SSA has an ever increasing workload but Congress has failed to adequately fund the program and Americans are waiting longer to have questions answered or their requests for disability benefits heard. As commissioner, we are confident that former Governor O’Malley will work effectively with Congress to secure the resources that the SSA needs, and use them as efficiently as possible. The SSA must be fully staffed to meet the public’s needs and those staff need the best tools and technology available to serve the American people.
“As Maryland’s governor, Martin O’Malley distinguished himself by adopting an innovative management style, setting specific goals for problems like crime and cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay, making those goals and progress toward them transparent so citizens could see whether things were improving. That experience makes him an ideal person to run a complex organization such as SSA and ensure all Americans receive the benefits they have earned and the best service possible.
“The members of the Alliance for Retired Americans urge the members of this committee to advance his nomination as quickly as possible.”
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Contact: Lisa Cutler, lcutler@retiredamericans.org
